The Shinra Affair
by BleedingHeartsoftheWorldUnite
Summary: "No, not him. ANYONE but him!" Larette recognized the snooty blonde in the photograph from a rather nasty encounter that had taken place only that morning. As a Turk, it was her job to protect him, but as a human being, she wouldn't have minded leaving him for a rabid chocobo to enjoy... Possibly rated 'M' for later chapters...
1. Not A Demotion, But-

"Don't look at this as a demotion," Tseng looked across the spacious room at the dark-suited figure opposite him, "Look at it as another chance to prove yourself." Despite the hard way he was looking down at his fellow Turk, he understood exactly what was going through the mind of his subordinate, because it wasn't that long ago that he had been in the exact same position. One one hand, he fully understood the decision to compromise the mission to protect her comrades, but as her boss, Tseng couldn't condone her actions either.

Not taking that shot when she had had the chance, Larette had effectively let a known Shinra spy slip through her grasp, but if she had taken that shot with her malfunctioning weapon, the lives of her allies would have been put to rest, as well as the lives of many innocent bystanders. It had been a tough choice to make in the moment, but she didn't regret making it; if by some miracle she could go back and relive the moment, the outcome would have been very much the same, but instead of wasting time thinking about it, she would have made due with a surrounding item instead. At least then she could have honestly said that she had tried her hardest...

It haunted her, recalling how she hadn't even attempted to use her environment to her advantage, but all the same, the only regret she had about the entire ordeal was disobeying orders. Law and order was crucial to life - she had learned that as a child - but at the same time, she had lost too much already to just stand by and let her friends get harmed. "I stand by what I did." Taking carefully measured steps, the young woman passed by a handsome desk crafted from the wood of a banora tree, fingers brushing the smooth surface as she leaned in to address her boss in a serious and confidential manner. "Tseng, I made a promise to myself that no matter what, I won't disobey orders again."

At least she understood her error and showed remorse for it, as well as possessing an attitude of not wanting to repeat the mistake. That went a long way on the road to recovering from this incident, but it also helped her cause that Reno had apprehended the criminal shortly after she had lost him. "Keeping the company's secrets is our top priority as Turks-"

"That's why it means so much to me that everyone was willing to give me this second chance." Larette didn't have her new orders just yet, having only been informed that she was to be placed on this job as a kind of probationary period, so she surmised that it would be something simple, like guarding some mid-high ranking Shin-Ra employee. She was half right...

The burden in question was a very important individual, but he wasn't just some employee of replaceable use, which naturally meant a rather pressing kind of job between the hours and the potential threats alone. Having worked under the man directly for a brief stint of time that wasn't short enough, Tseng knew that the job ended up being more like employment as a personal assistant with a gun and special license. "I would save my gratitude if I were you."

Larette looked at her supervisor quizzically, wondering exactly what he meant by that. "...?"

Tseng shoved the manila folder atop a meticulously neat stack at Larette, expression grim. Well, grimmer than usual. Suddenly very afraid of what she might see in the docket, the young female Turk gulped on the inside as she took the papers in her hand and began to scan the encased printings. Well she had been right in that it was a glorified babysitting job, so that was something of a relief, but her coffee-brown eyes grew so wide when she saw her charge that they looked in danger of rolling out of her skull in protest.

"No, not him. ANYONE but _him_!" Larette recognized the snooty blonde in the photograph not from her job, but from a rather bad encounter that had taken place only that morning...

_Disciplinary action had never suited Larette well, if only for the opportunity it had presented, all that free-time allowing her slacker side to rise; what was even more irksome than that streak of flub was the time it took for it to set in and take hold. All of fives days in without having to report in for insanely early mornings, and she was already at the point where having an alarm was practically pointless - in other words, the purple-haired fighter had overslept and was running late for only the second or third time since joining the company. Not the best way to start out a disciplinary hearing. Well, technically her hearing wasn't until later that afternoon, but Larette had said that she would come in before that and help out with some of the ever-mounting paperwork._

_"Well, technically I only promised to help Reno..." Muttering consolingly to herself in what she thought was an empty hallway, the Turk sped on, hand deep in her pocket as she reached for her ID card._

_A voice sounded behind her, chilling and aloof, but more than that, it was commanding; she had never heard such a voice before, the tone itself both grating and alluring, cocky and oozing a cold sort of power. "A Turk late to work?" A man. He sounded partially amused by that paradox, although there was an obvious layer of disappointment and contempt for the notion. "You won't last long in a world like this if you won't even bother to show up on time."_

_Knowing all of her bosses, or at least assuming that she did, Larette knew right away that this fellow behind her was not above her on the company ladder, and as such, he had no right to lecture her about being tardy. Rolling her head to the side, she had a better sense of the guy, but she wasn't quite looking at him just yet. "I don't know who you think you are pal, but you can't just go around berating people. Besides, you're late too."_

_It wasn't very often that he had heard someone talk to him like that, let alone without even bothering to face him - this woman had serious gumption to talk to him like that. He kind of liked it, in an annoying sort of way. "Heh, more people could use your spirit." A number of Board Members flashed before his eyes at the words. "But on the other hand, people might start getting dangerous ideas listening to rabble like you..."_

_Words failing, all she could do was flap her jaw in outrage and sputter incoherent things at hearing that trigger word. "Rabble...?!" Finally turning all the way around, Larette finally came face-to-face with the man that had insulted her. "Wha? You...!" Her first instinct was to slap him for that, but being a Turk, she had to be above such petty things, so instead she applied techniques acquired in one of her management classes. "Obviously we have very different opinions about what constitutes as 'rabble', but since you're obviously the kind of guy that I typically avoid, I'll just save us both the trouble and end the conversation now."_

_"You have no idea who I am, do you?" A snide smirk played across the man's dispassionate face then, lighting the glint in his eyes that looked so dead before. He had been gone from Midgar a long time, but for an employee to have no idea, and a Turk no less..._

_Honestly, she couldn't have cared less about his identity if she had tried. "Some #$*&%^? Now," she turned her back from the mesmeric blonde, fully intending to leave. "I'm late enough as it is."_

_"Here, you dropped this when you jumped." Inclining at the waist, he handed her the ID card he picked up from the floor, taking only a second to see the name imprinted upon it. "I hope you made fond memories as Turk, because something tells me you won't be around for very much longer..."_

Slamming the file closed as if that ego-maniac's picture would turn her to stone if it was uncovered long enough, she pleaded with her boss, almost willing to fall on her hands and knees to beg for this to be some kind of a sick joke. This man, he was the worst kind of scum, the kind that she would probably just stand back and watch being murdered in a brutal fashion, the sort that would quickly get canned for his lousy attitude towards others...

Sensing the distress in the woman and misreading it, Tseng thought that it had only sprung up from what she might have heard rumors of, because this latest mission had been away for the past three years, so since she couldn't possibly know him yet, all that remained was the garbled memories of others. True, failure might have been the outcome of her previous mission, but he knew her better than to think that she had any apprehension whatsoever when it came to protecting such an important asset to the company. Aside from the mental and emotional toll this could take on her - probably the reason she had been requested for the job specifically by name - he had faith that there was little else that could be thrown her way on this mission that she couldn't handle. "This job should be no problem for the girl I recruited in Gongaga, am I right?"

The events that had transpired in her native Gongaga still left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she couldn't let the director down, not again. That selfish beast was... Well, Tseng had faith in her and her abilities, so there was absolutely no backing away from this job, not when he purposely recalled the day that had changed her life forever... Groaning softly as she tried to mask the disdain in her heart, Larette nodded resolutely, "I won't let you down again, sir."

If she did... Well thinking about it wasn't really a pretty image, and she really liked where everything was at on her person, so failure really wasn't an option here.

* * *

But requested by who, I wonder? Anyways, firing Larette is probably way too simple and humane for the likes of this particular individual... Also, as a final note, this the remake of my little mini-series, 'The Shinra Affair'.

**[Edit - 5/31/14:** At the incredibly wise advise of a reader, I have made a slight alteration to the chapter... It's shorter now, but I think better for it, so thanks again!**]**

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette.


	2. Father Is A Cold Word

_Father..._

Rufus Shinra was regally posed back in the company helicopter, poise evident even with his head cast to the side as he gazed out at the sprawling mass of darkened gems that was Midgar, light eyes glaring through the protective glass at the streets below. It normally wasn't the kind of thing that caught his eye, but he couldn't help but to watch a couple strolling down the early morning street, the girl's hand going from a complacent state of relaxation to one of excitement as she dragged her date forward. As far as looks went, the female's face was too avian for the vice's liking, her beak-like nose standing out in the gray-purple light, her date more than effeminate enough to compensate for that fact. So far as everything else went, the buffoon was obviously out of his league with a girl like that, but neither seemed perturbed by the pronounced class difference; on the contrary; the couple was all smiles as they ran into the theater, the usher just barely letting them scrape by for the start of the show. She was clearly the one who had paid to see that over-rated stage massacre, and yet there was no trace of contempt for that fact...

"I don't really get it myself," Reno, the red-headed Turk that had picked him up from his Junon escort and was taking him back to the main building for a late morning meeting, spoke up from the pilot's chair, flying with such careless ease that he was able to glance back at the young VP, "But people really do love that show. Say," He turned back to the controls briefly to make sure that they were maintaining their current altitude, "You're dating the star, aren't you?"

Cheval Glass - the lead actress of the current iteration of the famed 'Loveless' - was indeed linked romantically to the second most powerful man in town, but it was a relationship as fabricated and trifling as the woman herself, although she had made the counterargument that their sham was more parallel to his insincerity and cynicism. However you looked at it, the sparkling diamond on display was flatter than one of Rufus' crisp suits after it had been picked up from the cleaner and not worth one red gil.

"..." Rufus looked away at the very idea of having an honest conversation with the vapid creature under discussion, turning his attention instead towards his faithful pet and security dog, Dark Nation. He had had the creature since it had been a pup, and it was the one constant in his life since that time. _How long had that couple been together, and how long would they remain? _It was a valid enough question, but speaking from what he knew personally, it wouldn't last much longer, because there was always something or someone better to step in as a replacement for their so-called 'happiness'.

Everything was just a revolving door, but once his old man found 'the Promised Land', maybe things could change, and people would stop lying to themselves with their delusions of joy... Personally, until actual evidence presented itself, he viewed his father's foolish dream as just another waste of good money, but in the long run, once people realized that no such thing existed, it would ultimately end his way and everyone would admit what miserable fools they were.

"Hurry," The blonde's crisp exclamation come so suddenly that Dark Nation jerked its head up, fangs barred for an attack that wasn't coming. Stroking the beast's head to calm him down, Rufus' hand went automatically to a favored place just above the base of his pet's skull. "I'm going to be late for my meeting." As if the dunderheads could figure out how to sit down their own, let alone hold meetings to oversee Shinra's vast empire without him (and yet they had managed all these years)...

Why his father relied on those imbeciles, or better yet how, Rufus couldn't figure out for the life of him...

Hmm, father...

_Father?_

_It was raining outside, something he had never seen before growing up in Midgar, but they weren't in Midgar now; they were at their summer home. His mother - face blocked away a combination of rough wind tousling through her golden curls and a white parasol sweeping up to protect her from the water - called out to him, telling him to not play in the street. Only half listening to her as he ran wide, impatient laps around the grounds, Rufus waited for any sign of the company car to peek up over he hedges: His father promised that he would come this time for sure. His father had promised him that fuzzy ideal of a happy family photograph..._

_Hours passed. A car rolled up the muddy path just as he was beginning to lose faith that his old man would ever show up, the loose soil squelching beneath the tires, spattering anything unfortunate enough to be in the way. This had to be it, this had to be him! Running down the little hill he had settled on while he waited in the rain, Rufus saw his mother ambling gracefully up to the car, fair head held high as always. She didn't see her son as he sprinted forth, thinking him off with the nanny when in reality he had stolen away from his afternoon nap, but she did see the person sitting inside the car as the door opened, and she was less than happy to be greeted by the Turk sent in her husband's place, already knowing the cause of this latest dismissal..._

_Dark hair knotted at the base of his neck, a bespectacled man spoke automatically, as if he were a machine relaying a simple message. "The president wishes to offer his condolences that he couldn't make it in person-"_

_The blonde woman shook her head as if stricken, heart closing off as if she had suddenly been widowed, years of repressed rage taking hold of her tiny frame. "I am not some employee! He cannot treat me this way, he just can't!" She had known for years of his various affairs, but she had never said it out loud before this point. "What about Rufus?! He's the real son, not some bastard spawned from one of my husband's little side pieces! So how can he find the time to have all of them when he neglects his own proper heir?!"_

_Proper heir? What did that mean? Slowing to a stop just outside his mother's line of sight, the young boy listened to his mother's shouted rants, more than furious that his father had failed to show up for the third weekend in a row now. "Mother?" He looked over at the car, seeing the Turk seated so calmly inside, unaffected by this. How he hated them for that, for delivering this kind of news, for keeping his father so busy that he couldn't see his son like he had promised. Surely the Turks could deal with whatever was keeping his father away? He had always been told that they could do anything, so why did his father not come? Unless... he didn't want to come? "Father isn't coming, is he?"_

_Scowling over at the Turk in the car as if this was personally his fault, the wife of the president shook her head and attempted to sweep her boy into her arms so that they could go inside and get out of this horrid weather, but he would not budge. "Rufus, you know that your father loves you more than anything, but work keeps him so busy that he can't come home-"_

_"No!" Father promised that they would be happy, that they would truly have it all..._

_Father promised...!_

Father lied. Rufus was alone in the world, and the only he could really trust in was himself...

* * *

A big round of thanks to **frankannestein** for the review! Constructive criticism is what will help make this a more enjoyable experience for as all, and as a writer, it's one of the biggest and best building blocks for future success! So please, if there's anything at all that any of you would like to say about this, I am listening!

Anyways, I want it on the record that Rufus is one of my favorite characters in the series; I'm only going with how I picture him to be before the first/original game, and especially before the movie, which unfortunately is as a major jerk. That's putting it simply. As for his dreams of the promised land, I always wondered about his belief in it. Personally, I still wonder, but for the sake of this story and canon, I'm saying that Sephiroth's return and all of that was enough evidence for Rufus to buy that the promised land could possibly exist. But who knows, maybe he always did believe in it... And yes, Loveless has shows that start early in the morning. It is an epic after all.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette.


	3. Crimson Silence

Silence. After the meeting with Tseng adjourned, it was time for Larette to officially meet her mission, but apparently he was too good to keep appointments with his security to go over the details of their new arrangement, so instead the Turk was stuck waiting in the office. Figures that his list of charming characteristics would keep getting longer. Sitting at the desk shoved closest to the filing cabinet as she waited for her personal nightmare to find a minute in his busy schedule, the woman was currently engaged in a fierce battle of what had been named 'Rude Do'.

Doodling a picture of Rude with a slicked-back hair style, Reno - one of the original inventors the game - peeked across at the desk behind his own, seeing that his competition had gone with a gingerly kept head of ringlets. Hmm, interesting choice there, but timely... In the hopes of distracting her so he could guarantee the time win, the red-head offered a piece of sensitive information that no one else in the office was likely to have yet. "The vice president is back from Junon. It's causing quite the commotion upstairs."

"..." Focused on beating Reno, Larette ignored his gossip, not saying a word as her pen flurried on.

He took her lack of interest to be rather disappointing, since Rufus had been sent away for undisclosed reasons - although very few actually knew that - and hadn't been seen in Midgar for a very long time now. At least it seemed like a long time for Reno, but then again he was the sort that had a hard time sitting still for prolonged periods. "It hasn't been confirmed, but some say that he was the one that-"

"Done!" Pleased enough with her work to turn it in as a final product for judging, she held up her piece of pink sticky-note first. A better artist than Reno (although Tseng had them all beat), Larette had drawn a very detailed entry that even included Rude's custom shades and silver piercings, a couple of curls tucked behind his ears. A mistake at one of the top curls had been turned into a small bow.

A rule that he himself had created, the winner of the game was usually the one that finished first (Rude added the stipulation that the picture had to take at least a minute to draw to discourage cheating), although because of Cissnei, the parameters had to be tweaked to include that in the case of a time draw, it wold go to a vote. The vote phase varied between who was in the poll, but the main factors under consideration were normally who had the better idea, who applied their idea the best, and who did the over-all better job. Some of the 'judges' would accept bribes, and it was a known fact that Rude would also take into consideration which made him look the best. Petty arguments were not unheard of in 'Rude Do'.

Whereas Reno was one of the faster contestants and often won through the first condition for victory, glory was not always in his grasp, since he would try to get the advantage any way he could, and as such, people would often vote against his favor on principle. Some of the Turks were seriously lobbying for an amendment to the rules that demanded the game go to the vote phase regardless of who finished first, but the issue of how to compromise on the speed factor was one of great divide.

Apparently he wasn't the only one to fight dirty though, since that clever minx had used his attempt to distract her as a way to distract him! As the first to finish her picture, she won that round. "Ha, in your face!"

Sulking over his defeat, he pouted - lip pucker and all - reminding her of the cruel fact that it was rare for her to win. "So that makes two to my impressive 1759." Brightening almost instantly as an idea struck him, the animated killing machine and spy crumpled up his losing gambit, tossing the paper into one of the four wastebaskets, not considering what would happen to it from there.

Not trusting the shift in his attitude, just knowing that he had something cooking in that head of his, Larette observed him carefully. Maybe he just forgot what the loser had to do... "Reno, you do know what you have to do, right? Even Tseng agreed to that one special condition."

As was Larette's own addition to the rules, Reno heaved himself up and stuck her picture on the small bulletin board in the bottom corner of Tseng's office window - where all the winning portraits went until they fell or were otherwise removed - making a show of it. Coming back and sitting down at his desk for another round of whatever would stall the paperwork, he plucked up another clean note, "Care to make it 1760?"

If she won again, then that would be twice in a row that he had to make the 'loser's run', but if she lost, she would have to take it, and that would make his victory all the sweeter... "I really did not see that clause coming back to bite me in the butt so hard. When it was Carriyon's humiliation, it seemed like such a good idea, but now..." Shaking her head of the absent Turk and glancing a furtive eye at Reno, Larette weighed her options...

_Something red glistened in polychromatic shades of scarlet on the floor - painted white for purposes such as these - and the only sound echoing off of the pasty alabaster walls was the sound of metal laying into flesh, a voice lost in the transcending pain. Taking a break from getting the guilty party to talk, a man with an untidy red ponytail walked over to the two shadows watching from just inside the door. One of them he knew, but the other one must have been one of the rookies in training. It took a lot to be a Turk, including a strong stomach._

_Rude, his partner for most missions, was the tall, dark, and scary sort, while the girl at his side was on the underfed side, her dark brown eyes wide in dark bags that made her look ill. "Yeesh, where'd they dig you up?" Seriously, she looked as if she had died in a reactor meltdown and had been brought back by a newbie that had never handled any sort of resuscitative magic before._

_Still wary of her new comrades after what looked like a rough acquisition, she looked to Rude. Rude understood that she had been frightened by the lively manner in which they had been greeted after a particularly gruesome interrogation that was maybe only half-way over. "...Tseng brought her from that rebel group in Gongaga."_

_The Turks both noticed that she had tensed at the mention of the rebels, but Rude had more tact than to bring it up here. _"_Oh, them? Man, talk about headaches!"_ _His light eyes narrowed as the man behind them grumbled at that exact moment, slowly regaining consciousness. "That there is their leader. Do you know 'im?"_

_The girl looked over at the figure slumped forward in a sturdy metal chair, bound and gaged to the point that the slightest movement caused him great pain. Raking over the man's face, the girl lowered her eyes back to the floor, and she gave her head a small nod. "I know him."  
_

_Being a Turk meant more than unparalleled skill and nerves of steel - being a Turk also meant unfaltering loyalty, both to Shinra and to the rest of their ilk. Not everyone was a fit in that department, so Reno took it upon himself to test as many recruits as he possibly could. This was no exception._

_"Here Rookie, you have a go at it."_ _Reno slipped the electro-magnetic rod off his wrist and handed it to the kid._

_The parts that weren't spattered crimson ached a dull grey-blue. Gawking from the object trust in her hands back to the Turks watching, the girl knew at once what they had expected her to do; the problem was, she didn't know if she could do it; not yet, not to this person. Holding the the metal in one hand and feeling the weight of the stick as it dangled in her grasp, she cast another glance at the man in the chair, heart tearing itself part once more as he looked at her, his dark brown ones boring deep into her own..._

On one hand, it would have been nice to claim one more victory to inch her way closer towards double-digits, but on the other, she knew from personal experience that Reno wasn't one to be taken lightly, despite his goofy demeanor and ability to remain so upbeat after everything he had seen and done. Larette still had nightmares about the first time they had met, and subsequent early encounters. Shaking her head, the young woman declined. "I think I'll pass."

* * *

And the thanks continues! Here's to **Silver-'-Doe290s** for the review (there was something you said that got me thinking about the politics of the Turks, which worked itself into the game, although I kinda took it in the opposite direction)! Yep, I'm a thanker! See, less dot dot dots.

Writing this chapter, I wondered how they went about making paper and things like that in Gaia, and then I realized that some of the materials might have come from the mako reactors, kinda like in recycling. Except, being as wasteful as Shin-Ra is, I doubt that their form of recycling would be used until after the movie... Although, since they no longer use the reactors at that point (but if not for Geostigma, I wonder if they would still...?), it is possible that they did their recycling bit earlier... Hmm, I think I have a theory on that, but I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on the matter.

In terms of capturing Reno, I think I failed quite miserably, but in my defense, I want to show that he isn't just the comic relief and like all Turks possess a sinister side. And also, he seemed more serious in the original game than in the movie, so I imagine that he 'mellows' with time, which means that I have to hit the rewind button. But that's just me trying to excuse my fail-Reno.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon.


	4. Mephitic Meeting

As predicted of the simpletons his father gave select power to, they swore up and down that his abrupt reappearance had been rather unexpected, and as such the meeting had been expanded upon to include matters that had been delayed in the vice president's absence. Most of it was mind-numbing issues he swore that his father had spitefully saved just for this occasion, but there was the important issue or two in the mix - at this rate, he expected to remain in Midgar for at least one more day before it was all on the road to being sorted. Such was the life he had made for himself.

By the time that that damned blonde woman decided to stop yapping everyone's ear off and adjourn the meeting until morning, it was well after the appointed time for Rufus to meet his new muscle, the dark sky outside the wall-length windows falling into an even deeper shade of sable. Tired from having to walk the rest of the board through it all as if they were four years old, he pinched the corners of his eyes, the strong stench wafting in through the ventilation starting to make his head spin, but the VP still had to finish up the last-minute details with his protector.

"Send the Turk in." Ordering one of the lingering secretaries to let in the newest chaperon, Rufus felt a sudden angry buzz where his handheld should be. Pulling out his phone to see who it was as the fluttering messenger discarded the objects in her arms back on the table to hurry and follow orders, the blonde was unsurprised to see that it was Cheval. Groaning to himself, Rufus stepped into one of the secret side doors in the room so that he could take the call in private. At least there in the unlit passage, he could breath easily.

Screeching even before he had answered the call, Cheval was halfway through a rather throaty lecture already. "-Back?! I'll tell you how it makes me look! It makes it look like there is a divide between us! Even if the press is in your father's back-pocket, that doesn't mean that people won't gossip!"

So annoying. Glancing down at the phone in his hand, the screen creating a faint bluish light that was vaguely sickly looking on the side of his face, Rufus half considered replying, but after the day he had, he was in no mood to deal with this woman too. So regretting that he had even opened it in the first place, he hung up the phone, switching it over to 'silent' so he wouldn't be disturbed further. Cheval could rage all she wanted, but when it came down to it, there wasn't anything she could really do but go along with whatever he wanted, just like everyone else...

Coming back out of the vestibule, not particularly caring if the nameless assistant saw him doing so or not - she could always be 'taken care of' if there was an issue - his crystalline-sky orbs snapped immediately to the silhouette leaning against the conference room wall, arms crossed sternly over her chest. If he had had any inclination to apologize for the inconvenience, it withered on sight - The Turk assigned to him was that mouthy woman from earlier! Oh this was just too rich...!

Closing a bit more of the distance between them, Rufus realized that she had fallen asleep where she stood, violent violet strands billowing gently in the soft breath issuing from a downcast mouth. Who would have thought that she could have looked so...?

His eyes loitered on her face a moment longer before speaking, tone as unsympathetic as always. "Are you the one?"

Eyes flying open as if she had been electrocuted, the woman was so startled by hearing Rufus speaking to her that she jumped forward, chin slamming down into her chest. "Sir, I was just closing my eyes for a moment, I swear!" Panicked, her demeanor changed instantly when she saw that it was him that had woken her. "Oh, it's you. Not that I have to explain myself, but some inconsiderate #$%^&*," He could tell that she wanted to call him worse, but that was nothing new,"didn't even bother to alert a soul that he would be detained the entire day, so I thought that I would close my eyes for a second. Even though you would deserve it, I wouldn't dream of sleeping on the job and letting an enemy slip by - I am a Turk after all." Being put on a job like this, he assumed that her professional life was hanging by a thread, the title just barely applicable.

"So it is you. Someone must really want me dead." Rufus stood just beside the woman, thinking to himself that early on in the process, it did cross his mind to send on a message to the Turks that his meeting with his new bodyguard would have to be delayed until late into the night. Instead of point that out to the woman, he engaged in the muted battle she was waging, glare conveying her feelings via expression alone, her eyes deep sepia pools of pure loathing.

Such fire. He hadn't seen eyes shining with that kind of passion in a long time, but if her behavior today was any indication of how she acted out on the field, he sincerely doubted that her vim would translate well in battle. "Of all the Turks I've seen come and go, you're the one I expect the least out of. Quite frankly, I have absolutely no interest in your carer." He thought about going on and saying that he was downright shocked that she had been admitted into the fearsome group the company so relied upon, and that had Tseng not done so much and been held such high regard, he might have issued an inquiry into the matter of her employment. Yet he didn't have to say all of that, because she seemed to pick that up just by looking at him.

Hiding the self-satisfied smirk of being able to stagger the same Turk twice in one day, Rufus was curious to see the limits of his shiny new escort. "Those eyes," He took a step closer to the woman, grabbing her face in his hand, digging his fingers deep into her flesh as he began to inspect her for further defaults, handling her as if she were just another product on the company line, "they remind me of something, someone. But who...?" Pretending to ponder upon it, the blue-eyed businessman let go of her as roughly as he could, a kind of sadistic pleasure taken in watching her struggle with her personal principals and those of being a Turk. It wasn't a struggle he got to see very often, and the few times he had been witness, it had always seemed to happen differently. "That's right, you're the one from earlier, the one that's going to find it hard to survive in your line of work."

It was obviously taking her every ounce of strength she possessed to refrain and keep herself in line, her hands trembling so furiously that she had to ball them up into fists, the skin already going bone white. He had no idea if she was technically on the clock or not, but he could read her desire to lash out as clear as day, her internal debate no less murky; not knowing for sure, he assumed that she was gauging what there was for her to lose if she struck him. Whatever was going on in her head, it seemed to not be worth it in the end. "I've survived enough, so I know that I can survive you."

Survive him? How cute that the kitty thought for a single moment that they were anywhere near in the same league. Rufus had a fearsome reputation in his own right, and that was only the things people _knew_. And who was this girl? No doubt just some rabble that had picked a fight in front of the right person and got lucky - there was no way that she could possibly understand anything about him. "You're either very brave or very foolish to speak to me like this." His eyes flickered over her features, taking in the visible intake of breath at the idea of a demotion. "If you don't mind your tongue better, you could end up in slums, working with the real trash."

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**Silver-'-Doe290s**, you are so awesome, thank you so much for the second review!

But did he actually send that message? If he did, Larette certainly never got it. I am sure that the secretary got Larette's omitted message, which was to eave them be or face the consequences. Or why ever you want to say that she didn't come back into the conference room. Maybe after all that time she had forgotten what fresh air smelt like, so she decided to just come back later. Which ever.

I hope that their meeting was ok - goodness knows I only worked it hard enough! But maybe I worked it too hard? Let me know, pelase!

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon.


	5. Icy Misgivings

It wasn't exactly what he had implied, but her mind flashed over to a newly constructed member's only club in the Sector 5 slums. Shivering internally as she tried and failed to imagine what it must have been like to be one of the women employed there, Larette was glad that she had been found by Tseng and not turned over to that disgusting fat pervert that owned the place. Knowing that Shinra had allowed that kind of a place to thrive so long as it was being benefited in some way was haunting enough - come to think of it, it was probably this little ray of sunshine that had proposed the symbiotic relationship - without having to remember the faces of all the girls she had seen being taken to that hell. To help comfort her own guilty conscious, the Turk told herself that it was the price they had to pay for wronging the company.

Being a Turk really wasn't the easiest thing in the world, but neither was dealing with her new dependent. Brushing passed him so her back was no longer to the wall (a place that was leaving her feeling frighteningly vulnerable as he examined her), she sat down in one of the vacant seats, waiting to show Rufus the paperwork so that they could go over the schematics of Tseng's security plan. Honestly, how her boss did everything that he did! It really was impressive. Too bad Rufus failed to inspire that - or really any - level of exaltation.

Clearing her throat not just to get his attention but also to dispel the dangerous thoughts threating to enter her head, the tested temper procured a simple company pen from deep within her pocket, yet she did so in a way that made it look as if it had materialized out of thin air. It was a nifty little party trick she had learned from Rude during arms practice, and she figured that since her integrity as a Turk was on the line, it was time to utilize it for at least one of its original purposes.

Waiting to see how that agonizingly impassive person would react to seeing some of her skills firsthand - albeit in a disappointingly non-lethal atmosphere - she was somehow unsurprised to see the bored look upon his countenance as she held out the ball-point. Taking into account all of the expressions he had worn so far, she was beginning to think that he had only the one stoic sneer. "So, are we ever going to suck it up and get down to it, or are we just going to stand here all night admiring what an incorrigible rake you are?"

Apparently, she must have said something that amused him, because for the first time ever, the woman saw that glacial mask of his crack somewhat and move in a way that wasn't a twitch of irritation. Well damn, there went her theory. "You certainly are an impatient one."

"No, only eager to be rid of you and on to the next job." Failing to see any other meaning behind her words, Larette shrugged, sharpening the angle of her spine so that it was almost at a perfect 90 degrees. It was one thing not to like her - heaven knows that that was a mutual sentiment - but she would not abide by him doubting her professionalism. "So before things get out of hand, I would request that you join me so that we can be on our way."

Considering her for a moment, no doubt looking down his nose at the Turk both literally and figuratively, Rufus accepted the invitation and took the seat at her side rather stiffly, as if he had something else undesirable would rather be doing than spending an evening with her. Hmph, like she would ever want to be couped up in a room that smelled pungently of sweat and something not quite distinguishable, utterly alone with him for hours at a time? She would rather be on the bad end of Reno after a bad day at work than spend a single moment in Rufus' presence! Oh wait, according to the parameters of her new mission, that was going to be every day of her life for an undetermined time period. Joy of joys, dreams really did come true.

Gritting her teeth as she opened her own copy of the outlined procedure, the Turk did not skim the file this time but read it thoroughly, liking this order less and less with each passing word. _Cohabit?!_ They seriously expected her to retain a shared residence with him in Junon?! Sure, she understood that guarding the vice #$%^&* would be a full-time job, but if she had given it serious thought, Larette only would have assumed that she would have been given a small roost just outside of his rooms for the rare moments she would be off-duty, not that she would have been forced to see him literally every hour of every day. Urgh, and speaking of her downtime, the Turk would be the only person stationed constantly, while everyone else was either a rotating guard or an emergency replacement. The following details were only worse, since they contained the fine points of what Rufus was and wasn't allowed, the spoiled little brat. Tseng was so right about her wanting to save her thanks for this job...

Judging from the way he flipped through the pages, he was more curious to see what wasn't included than what was actually listed - Larette vaguely wondering for the first (but almost certainly not the last) time what was being kept from her during this task. Rufus spoke for the first time in minutes that were inexorably stretching into hours. "If you're not up for the job, you can still back out now. I can't think anything less of you than what I already do."

With a line like that, there was no way that she could back down! Taking out a second pen, this one slightly chewed at the cap and imprinted with the standard yellow chocobos, the Turk signed her own form of consent before yanking his over and endorsing it in her own hand as well. "As if I'd give you the satisfaction." In fact, she had no intention of being party to anything that could possibly make this man happy, short of keeping him breathing, since that was her assignment. Standing up, Larette intended to depart after arranging the schedule (which had better be followed this time)."We should leave for Junon around noon, since the helicopter has to be refueled and prepped."

"Oh?" He cocked his head to the side, a wisp of golden fringe falling into his frozen eyes. It was nothing more than a simple observation, but she noticed that the blonde promptly shoved back his fair locks, perhaps just as impatient as he accused her of being, the ice blocking his oculus shining vividly. "I don't think that will work for me."

Work for him? Oh that was a clever one alright, considering that this trip had only been scheduled for... Unsure of how long exactly his visa permitted, her eyes skimmed the scattered pages, spotting one that contained a clause extending his business trips for 'as long as necessary'. How convenient for him... "Fine, we'll go once everything here is in order, but so help me, if you try even once to sneak out and see that horrid excuse for entertainment or your girlfriend, we'll have issues."

At that, Rufus truly did laugh...

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To **Silver-'-Doe290s**, one of the kindest, most considerate souls I've encountered! Thank you so much for continuing to support my story and I!

Sorry if there are too many mistakes - I'm still trying to get used to using my laptop! Anyways, most of this is just the whole little mundane details. To the everyday! I imagine that the Turks would have lots of paperwork, especially on a long-term stationary position, so a contract would be required (seriously, think of all the company secrets she could learn!). Inking both forms is probably some kind of security measure in place to help prevent/identify fraud.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon.


	6. Common Aversion

Rufus couldn't quite make up his mind about whether or not he was more amused by the irony of the Turks's words or unsettled by the fact that this meant that they actually had something in common. In the end, he couldn't help but to laugh, trying to squash the sound down into a soft chuckle. "So you don't care for it either." He gazed pointedly at her shortened 'summer-sleeves' look. "You looked the sort that would have eaten that drivel up as if it were sacred."

Brown irises following his gaze and trailing down to her sleeves, at least assumed she had enough brain cells to understand that that was where he was going with the comment, the female arched her eyebrow at him. "What, you mean a girl?" Her voice became defensive once more, indicating that she had failed to interpret his intent, just like she had failed to deduce any possible undertones in her previous statements - it would appear that she was more naive than she let on. "Isn't Loveless that one Soldier 1st Class' favorite show? At least that's how the rumor goes..."

"Genesis? I wouldn't know anything about that." Shaking his head, the blonde thought it would have been more obvious what he was getting at. "No, an artist. Artists usually are the romantic sentimental type." Not many Turks deviated their uniform in any way, so to him, her tampering with the sleeves was a creative bid at individuality. He imagined that the concept of being yourself would be in short supply in that branch, that some of the Turks would want to stand out in some way so that they weren't lost in a dark-suited blur, even if the uniform was tactically ideal. But surely her hair was vivid enough to get the job done on its own, even if it was somewhat similar in style to the Turk he knew as Shotgun. With hair has bright as her's and eyes so determined, surely there was no one else to match...

"Romantic? Sentimental?" There was something in her bright brown eyes at each idea, something that simmered the fire, a kind of far-off sorrow that she tried to keep hidden. No, perhaps that was giving her too much credit - Rufus could believe in the intensity in her young soul, but she looked to be around his age, and he doubted that anyone else of the same seniority could harbor a dark past. Peering into the lurid tawny depths once more to confirm what he thought he had seen, he wondered if maybe he was not right all the time... "I have sympathy in my heart, but I don't know if sentimental is the right word to describe me. After my family was..." The Turk shook her head, batting away the images that swam up behind her sepia eyes, "I don't look back. At least I try not to."

That was only the logical choice, given her line of work, but the vice president had the impression that there was more to it than that, that whatever skeletons lurked in her closet had haunting meaning. That was something he could understand, as not looking back was something he had always been very good at doing, ever since he had been a child, ever since that day he had seen his mother cry tears of anger for his own sake. At least at the time he thought that it had been solely for his own sake... "Is that the path of the Turk, or...?"

Now it was her turn to stare at him critically for a moment, seeming to ponder greatly upon his words. Maybe she didn't alway interpret his meaning, but when it came to matters like these, she seemed to be able to read him clear enough. "No, it is my choice to look ahead at the future and hope for a better day than yesterday."

Revolving in place, the Turk made a beeline for the exit, clearing intending him to finish up his part of the paperwork alone. What she intended from that point on was unclear. "Hey," That woman stopped just as she reached the door, "For what it's worth, your assessment of that show isn't wrong, but why don't you like Loveless?" Getting back to her snide, nasty, biting self, she leered at him, "You do seem like the tasteless type, and after all, you are dating one of the leads, aren't you?"

Bitter to the very end, apparently. "Why? Jealous that you can't get a date with that surfboard you call a body?" He smirked as her cheeks flushed in anger. "Not that it's any of your business-" Although once the paperwork was submitted, it pretty much was pointless to go out of his way to hide something that unimportant, "-but I have no love for a show that has no importance to me personally, especially one that has cast that slippery, tufthunting beachplug in its lead."

"And here I thought I was the only one to think that!" So more than Loveless itself, they shared a dislike for the self-absorbed, overrated actress. Urugh, the amount of things that they were finding out about each other - nay, the fact that there was so much that they seemed to have one mind about was getting rather disturbing, and she was a Turk, so disturbing was up her ally. At least that's what the troubled look on her face translated as. "But then why bother pretending to date her? It's not like you're the one in need of some press."

Hmm, what did she care who he did what with, or for what purpose? So long as she knew who was expected to be in his inner circle and who cleared the security check-points, it shouldn't have mattered. But in spite of everything, he decided to humor her once more. "For publicity, mainly. The President -" Rufus felt no need to address that man as anything more than his boss, the resent evident in his voice. "-Encourages the sham to help insert the Shinra name even further down the throats of the masses. Pointless, when there are better tactics to deal with them."

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**Frankannestein**, you're reviews are always appreciated, even if they were a single word long! Same with anyone! And to **Guest**, I can relate really well in a way, since the only reason I now have a laptop is that my XP desktop is stubborn. I'm glad that it turned out alright, because I didn't want to miss anything by mistake. In some instances, I'm not always the fastest learner myself, and also can have a simple mind at times. And that's funny, because I'll also be turning 22 this year. Huh.

I drew a picture of what Larette might possibly look like, and her ponytail came out looking something like Shotgun's (from **'Before Crisis'**), although I think that even by shape alone, they are different enough. In fact, once I can settle on a last detail and get the thing colored in, I might just upload it and use it for the cover. Anyways, getting back to the story side of things, I doubt that Rufus would so easily admit that he was wrong; not right, maybe, but definitely not wrong, just like Larette would never readily acknowledge that he was right. This speech purposely echoes the one Rufus shares with Kadaj in **'Advent Children'**.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon.


	7. Limit Break

Better tactics? Yeah, leave it to someone as aloof as the Vice President was to come up with an alternative way to run things - an alternative the Turk assumed would be just as dark and depraved as the boy that thought it up. Pivoting on her heel once more, Larette had realized almost a moment too late - hand halfway groping the doorknob - that more than just the required signatures, they had to actually converse about the situation at hand. This night really was truly doomed to never end, was it?

Rufus had obviously reached the same two conclusions she had, because he was watching her with those startling blue eyes of his, clearly half tempted to just let her go on her merry way without so much as a word (or rather a handful to the director later), but they were both painfully aware that she had had to wait for him for a reason. So it was with a level of reluctance that he had called Larette back into the conference room, possibly lamenting over how much that they opened up to the other. Stewing, the dirty deed-doer knew that she was weeping over it on the inside, but she chalked it up to sleep deprivation. "So let's get to business, unless you would care to wither the remainder of my attention span with your pointless meandering."

As if she had intentionally went out of her way to share! "No, it's time to just buckle down and do what we have been brought together to do." The Turk took her seat once more, tossing her long ponytail off her shoulder in the process. "So, the report says that your head of security put in the request for Turk assistance?" Her eyes flickered once more to the files scattered over the desk. "It sounds like the would-be assassin is armature-hour, so why involve us?"

With a charming personality like his, it was truly a wonder that the VP could have any enemies! Seriously though, the paperwork said that the assassination attempt had been interrupted by a civilian, and that the culprit had been apprehended immediately, so what was the sudden interest in recruiting a Turk? Flipping the page, the memo went on to say that there had been sequent attacks, each getting progressively better. Nearer to killing the target. More skilled. Ok, not quite a cakewalk, but still though, any basic security force should have been able to deal with this matter, Shinra executive or not. Something didn't ring right about the situation...

"Surely even you noticed it?" Larette never thought that she would see the day she met a blonde that nettled her more than the Head of the Weapon Development division, but she had been proven wrong. Very, very, very wrong. "There is a traitor in our midst. As a Turk, it's your duty to find that traitor and eliminate them."

And there he was, criticizing her once more! At this rate, the Turk just might have to side with this mystery person, because at the very least she could sympathize with the desire to be rid of this infuriating man! "I know what my job entails, thank you! #$%! Save the pep-talks for after I mess up, will ya? Even if these guys are getting their information through a mole, you'll be fine so long as I'm around." She thought fondly of her comrades, unable to not boost about them, smacking her semi-visible bicep for proof of her words. "I was trained by the best, with the best! I might not be as strong as Rude or as fast as Reno, but I can handle anything!"

Impressed in spite of himself, Rufus nodded slowly, admitting that her comrades were very imposing figures. "Reno and Rude have always preformed admirably in the past, but you I'm not so sure about. Well, it was Tano's idea to see if hiring a Turk would scare them off anyways, so better waste the talents of someone like you than a real Turk."

A real Turk...?! "Oh, you #$%^&* #% $*%^&* ! #%! *&%$ &^%*$ %%$#%& #$**^$# **&^$# ^%$# ...!" She had been doing her utmost to avoid this inevitable outcome, but even Turks had their limits, and Rufus had just broken through hers; Gathering all the might feasible in the span of a split-millisecond, Larette let him have it, the impact of her slap echoing against his cheek, reverberating off the walls. Already, there was a bright mark on his face...

Wires fried, the young woman's mind looked like a puzzle forced together from pieces that were never meant to mesh, if you could look deep enough through all of the rage, disgust, and general negativity radiating out of every pore to see it. Part of her was vindicated by the shock in his face, her hands itching to touch him again and do so much worse, but that was quickly ebbing away as his shock settled and his expression changed... Why did he stare at her so impassively?! Why didn't he look angry? Or scared, or interested, or anything?! Why did he just stare back at her with those empty eyes?! It was driving her crazy, his complete and utter apathy...

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Sorry all for that delay! My computer situation insists on giving me difficulty, and to top it all off, I was faced with a bit of a dilemma on how to continue; basically, I wondered if I should skip forward to them in Junon, after some time, or if I should continue from the last chapter. Hopefully I made the right choice! Anyways, **Guest**, I don't mind going off-topic, so no worries! Oh Aladdin, one of my favorite Disney movies! Sailor Moon I recall watching as a child, but I had no idea it came out that year! And for Josh Hutcherson, I had no idea we were the same age! I always knew it was close... We're also as old as Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez (to contribute my own Disney knowledge). Plus its also around the same time that Army of Darkness was made. Getting back on track, I'm still pretty early on in that story, and the video I've seen is played with Shotgun, but I like her so far, although its not exactly like I know what anyone else is like.. Anyways, I'm really glad that you like the story! And as if I could forget **Silver-'-Doe290s**! It always really is insightful reading your reviews, so thank you so much!

Well I finally found '**On The Way To A Smile - Case of Shinra'**! It really shed some light on things for me... Anyways, my point is that you might notice a slight flux in Rufus' behavior, but... Well I really want to attribute it more towards how he views others, as opposed to how he looks at Larette. I have a much better view of how Rufus is after meteor, but this is all before meteor... Just keep that in mind, and please let me know if he deviates too far and too rapidly from what I had him at the start.

Maybe I had her use too many censored expletives in that last line, but I wanted to show just how upset that line had made Larette, and that was one of the two ways I could think of to show that. But more importantly, the plot thickens!

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon.


	8. The Fate of Liabilities

Arriving hours too early for the morning meeting in the hopes that he could start things off and actually have his ideas be heard, the last thing that Reeve had expected to see was the vice president engaged in such a heated debate with a member of the Turks. In fact, as he had come down the hallway encumbered with blueprints and statistics, he had thought that the shouting he heard was initially a member of the night crew, but when he heard the president's son addressing a woman, his first thought was of that horrid Scarlet. Somehow, that wouldn't come as a complete surprise to find out that they were 'holding private meetings'. But no, just he was about to turn around and go, he heard a female voice that he knew, and it wasn't who he had thought it would be - it was the girl from the Turks that had rented the apartment next to his own.

"What in the world is Larette doing here so late?" No, speaking to the empty hallway just outside of the conference room, Reeve wondered if perhaps the better question would be what was she even doing on this floor? Being such an important branch of the company, it was natural for the Turks to have master passes to all of the floors, but to actually see one here without just passing through was strange to behold. "And why is she talking to the vice president?" With the exception of it being official business, he had seen no reason for them to be anywhere near the other. Unless it had something to do with his surprise visit from Junon...?

_Considering the fact that neither were at their own homes all that often, and at work he had never directly crossed paths with the young lady, Reeve __would presume to say that he knew her more than fairly well, __since she spent most of her downtime volunteering at various organizations he was a part of in some capacity or other. Knowing her as a Turk first and foremost, the Head of Rural Development had to admit that his initial impression was rather one-sided, __but when he saw her helping out a child that had lost his mother, he had begun to change his tune about the girl._

_On the way to getting to know Larette, __Reeve had learned that she was a kind soul that only wanted to support people, so after seeing that her intentions were genuine, he gave her a card to show anyone that needed assistance. It was his own number, so he could help patch people through to the various channels they would need on the road to recovery. She was doing a good thing for the most part, often times sending him family members and unintentional witnesses that were deemed not to be a liability to the company; however there was still the fact that she was a Turk, and has such was ordered on principle to 'deal' with those that had been labeled as liabilities._

___Curious to understand how she could spend her life doing something that seemed so counter-productive, Reeve inquired into the matter one night that they had gone out to get some drinks. It wasn't exactly a date, since they went out every other weekend or so, but even running into some of her co-workers, they still remained at the table alone. "You know, you are an interesting one."_

___Sipping her glass thoughtfully, the woman looked at him sideways, "What do you mean?" She glanced back over her shoulder at where Reno and Rude had sat at the bar, no doubt under the impression that his comment had something to do with them. "I see them all the time. Besides, whenever I go drinking with them, I always have too much fun."_

___Watching them for a moment, he could see what the lady meant by that, but that wasn't what he wanted to ask her, not exactly. "No, not that. You're a Turk, but you also spend at least two to four hours a week at the community center. I want to know why." Even though they had been friends for a while now, he __wasn't expecting an answer, let alone a completely honest explanation, but he still felt that it was his responsibility to ask._ "Why be a Turk when you see firsthand how that group can effect the citizens?"

___"I do it because..." Looking at the ceiling, Larette pondered the question for a moment before she answered, the words cautious. "Because I have done a lot of bad things in my life, even before joining the Turks, and this is just my way of making up for everything. There are a handful of reasons why I became a Turk, but the most important to me is that I would rather know what I'm fighting for at the end of the day. I know what the Turks do and what they stand for, but the fact remains that it suits me. Besides, I have debts to repay." There was a far-way look on her face, as if she were remembering something private. "Sure, there's a lot of secrecy and death, but we have done some good too, like getting rid of people that were the lowest kinds of scum. Why did you join Shinra?"_

_Lassie had a lot of demons in her past, but..._

"How can you be so cold?!" Hearing Larette shouting at the top of her lungs, Reeve decided to brave whatever was going to meet him on the other side of the door and entered the conference room. Unnoticed by either the Turk or the Vice President, the engineer saw that she was quivering all over as if she were longing to do so much more to Rufus - his cheek glowing a bright, tattle-tale pink but eyes as cold as ever - and looking as if she had realized what she had done, the Turk recoiled her hand, taking half a step back, as if she afraid for the repercussions.

Knowing her though, Reeve knew that that was not the case, and that if her pride as a professional had been injured enough for her too lash out like this, she was liable to do anything, regardless of who her aggressor was. Aware that more than her job was on the line from her actions, the other executive intervened before either of them even noticed that this encounter was no longer private. "Larette, there you are! Tseng was just looking for you - he said that it was urgent. You should go. NOW."

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**frankannestein**, thank you so much of reminding me about Rude-do! Lol, good times. Looking back, I still laugh at it! I say that as if it was forever ago and not days ago, lol. **Guest**, you! Seriously, I've only seen Case of Denzel and read Case of Shinra so far, and in terms of Before Crisis, still only at like episode ten, so I definitely have to bow respectfully towards your love of FF7! Yeah, Reno was the first Turk that got me into liking that organization, and one of the characters who really got me into FFvii (having started my own jumble of FF goodness with Advent Children) in the first place. Yeah, my earliest Disney memory is getting Sleeping Beauty on Christmas Eve. Ironically, it would be several years before I realized how awesome Aladdin was. In my own opinion, most of the best Disney movies came out in the 90s, like the Lion King in 94, although I thought that Beauty and the Beast came out in 91? Unless you're counting months and not just years? Anyways, yeah that makes sense that it came out in Japan in 92 but in the states in 95. Given its popularity, I would have thought that they would have dubbed it sooner, but I guess looking back at the time dubbing was a dubious enterprise? Seriously, with only one remaining season, you would have have thought that they would have. I dunno, tv executives, I tell you! Well as always, I'm glad to hear that the last chapter went over well!

I completely encourage you all to formulate your own perceptions (hence some of the wonder of reading), but for those of you who are curious about Larette, I have posted the cover as both the cover here and on deviantART. As for the story, I like the way that I flipped it and went with Reeve's POV, but I wonder if the idea went over so well with the rest of you. Hopefully I did Reeve right, but I think I might have, so I'm not too worried on that front.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon. Oops, Tano too!


	9. Potentially Useful But Never Desired

Rufus and Larette had been so swept up in their dissension that neither had heard the catlike arrival of Reeve - a pathetic misstep for the wretch trying to prove her worth as a Turk - but the choleric looks on their faces couldn't have made it any clearer that they had heard the words coming out of his mouth. For her part, that irksome female creature wore that conflicted expression the blonde was quickly coming to associate with her - as if he wanted to be plagued with any sort of thought about that troublesome individual - debating her available options. Gaging what he knew about her thus far, something in Rufus figured that she would want to stay and have it out, even if that ultimately meant her termination, but on the other hand, it was likely that she wouldn't want to risk directly disobeying Tseng, on the off chance that Reeve was actually telling the truth and the summons were real. With a prolonged gaze at Reeve that betrayed hints of some kind of silently acknowledged familiarity, she nodded gratefully at the older man and left the office, shooting the vice president one last malicious look. Such a joy to have around.

Once 'Backhand of Besetment' was out of the room and on her way to what the business executive would have bet was a mostly empty department (was there ever a second throughout without a Turk on duty?), Reeve launched into a thousand and one endeavors, explanations, and excuses. "Sir, Larette has been working late hours at the community center lately, so she hasn't been getting much sleep. I know that she's been put on suspension from duty, but she works harder than anyone else I've met, and she's a good-"

"Hmm?" Attention still on letting that woman just waltz out of the office after she had treated him that way, Rufus really hadn't been listening to what Reeve said, until the other man had mentioned something about her being placed on temporary respite. Now it made sense why she was such a headache - that woman had been unable to channel her pent-up energy, and so she was directing her ravenous appetite for momentum at the first thing she could: him. Yet while that answered one question, it also served to further rise the level of resentment he felt for the president, since he had allowed Tano to hire on a Turk that was dancing the fine line of permanent retirement, young as she was.

A Turk just on the cusp of disgrace was going to be his bodyguard until this issue resolved itself, one way or another. That troubled the blonde immensely - not because the Turk in question was an emotional time-bomb with questionable at best abilities, but because those he trusted to have his best interests were being so lax about the situation. It was a small matter that should have resolved itself long ago, but even still he wasn't worried about the external threat; how could he be when a move like this was screaming there was a mole? But if there was in fact a leak, that would place someone like Tano at the top of the list of suspects; the timing fit well enough, and being who he was, Rufus didn't need to consider what possible motivation there was - the only question he had was why not kill him before now? If it was Tano, he would have had plenty of opportunity to snuff out the vice president, so what was the endgame?

Becoming so engrossed in his own thoughts, Rufus barely noticed that Reeve had stopped rambling; in fact, had it not been for the intent way he was being watched, the younger of the two males probably would have been too deep in thought to realize that Reeve was waiting for more input on the fate of that lamentable laughingstock. "Sir?" After a span of five more seconds, the engineer pressed on. "What are you going to do about Larette?"

The Turk...? Hmph, might as well just sight back and see what she was capable of - who knows, the woman might even come in handy later on and help draw the assassin out into the open, so the #$%^&* could be dealt with in a prompt and fitting manner. As an added bonus for having to endure days upon days of her griping, Rufus eagerly thought that provided she completed this job, they would never have to see each other again, barring that if - and in the very likely event of when - she failed, he could fire her himself. Yes, that seemed a satisfying enough benefit of overlooking this sole incident, although should it occur again, the consequences were too dire to even bear thinking about. Well, for the time being, but he swore to himself that by the time they were back in Junon, he'd have something figured out for her. "The mission should sort her out."

Reeve looked quite alarmed at that notion, despite not knowing what the mission even entailed; no doubt one of the many pitfalls of caring about others. "Sir, I don't know what there is between the two of you, but Larette's a good girl, and you should have more faith in her abilities as a fighter. I realize that she doesn't look like much, but if you give her a chance, you could be surprised by her results."

Half tuning-out what Reeve was getting at, the part about there being something there between himself and that infuriating Turk caught the Vice President's otherwise attentive ear. "You think that there is something between...?!" That was the most ridiculous thing that he had ever heard! "Haha!" It was so amusing an idea, so absurd a notion, so impossible, the VP started to laugh. "Hehe, Reeve, that's a good one! Hah!" Rufus laughed so hard that it quickly became hard to breath, his lungs contracting too fast to work with the atmosphere any longer. "That Turk...!" Once he sobered up, the young man gazed over at Reeve, realizing that he wasn't laughing. Ah, they must have been close. "What do you know about that woman?"

* * *

**Silver-'-Doe290s**, really can't thank you enough! Every little bit of opinion is helpful to hear from anyone! And no, I expect that the POVs should primarily remain Rufus' and Larette's. **Guest** - my fellow Disney loving birth-year brethren - I do have to bow respectfully have to bow, because it's not very often that I meet another fan. That's my main point of research as well, but I'm more of the last-minute skimmer. My FF knowledge pretty much just pertains to vii - bad experiences when I branched out - and even then it's such a mixed-up thing! I started with Advent Children, went Dirge (and regretfully sold after a single play through), and I'm not exactly sure what came next, but it might be Crisis Core and then the original... Anyways, Complete was one of my last stops, before part of Before Crisis and Case of Shinra. Really not interested in Dissidia (because I know so much about it), and I never really got the chance to get into Kingdom Hearts (I got so far as the tutorial, which is rare for me). But getting back to Reno, yeah, I have to agree that he's somehow more likable/interesting with smooth 3d modeling. If I had started with the original game, who knows what my feelings on things would be! There is something about his eyes that makes him stand out... In fact, I always wondered if maybe he wasn't exposed to light mako radiation or something... I have blue-grey eyes, unlike a majority of my family. As for color preference... I dunno, I haven't noticed it in color for me - I focus more on shape, I think. Alas, I really don't remember Dirge at all (small pieces though, like Lucrezia, his gun, and Vincent in this one hallway...), but hearing that, I really have to look into that! Did they? I knew that they said something about a possible HD remake, but that sounded next to impossible, so I kinda tuned that out as to not get my hopes up. I always felt that there was more to tell, especially with both lines in the movie about 'as long as you exist, the nightmares will always come', and then Sephiroth's 'I will never be a memory'. I personally expected something for the 20th anniversary, but I didn't hear anything that made it sound possible, not that I exactly looked *guilty face*. I knew the plans of both games, but I had no idea that the one was originally the Versus one. I got a lot of, if not most of my VHS Disney around either Christmas or my birthday, expect for Mulan, which was Valentine's Day. For one, I understand the difficulties with spelling, so no problem, and for another, Pocahontas is really hard to spell. Without spell-check, I just just failed for fact. That's a lot of Disney. I have most of those movies, minus The Rescuers, the first Peter Pan, the Sword and the Stone, any of the shows (House of Mouse was so awesome, and I remember watching all the others as a kid) and Mickey/Donald features (I do have the first Goofy Movie and still want the second), and Dumbo. I do have Dinosaur, the Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Belle's Magical World, James and the Giant Peach, Snow White, the Aristocats, and maybe one or two others, I'm not sure... Hey, than's not a bad thing! There could be worse things in the world to be a fan of. Yeah, that would probably scare a person or two off of signing on to finish up a show. And yet, looking at what passes nowadays, would that really have been so wrong? Well, either way I don't really recall much about Sailor Moon... Thanks, I'm working on it!

Hopefully there are no major typos...

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon. Oops, Tano too!


	10. Cute Couple? Over His Dead Body!

Still seething over what Rufus had said about her not being a 'real Turk', Larette was beyond simply just seeing red - she was so furious, she wanted to turn back around, storm into that room like Inferit, grab that stupid little head of his and bang it all around the room, finally ending it by rendering his limbs completely useless. She wanted him so worn down that he looked like a different person, and after he lost his voice from begging for mercy, she wanted to burn his body out in the wilderness, where it would be found by the ravenous monsters before anyone else. If she could make it that far before anyone caught on to her plan, she knew the prefect place to abandon his corpse were it would never be discovered...

"#^$%, what am I thinking?!" Standing alone in the staircase that lead to either the 66th or 68th floor, the woman froze as she really considered what she was thinking. That kind of cold-blooded treatment wasn't her, not anymore... "Dad, mom... why do I still...?" Clenching her fists in frustration, the Turk threw her own body against the wall, allowing it to slide down the vertical support, not even caring that her suit - her pride and joy as a Turk - had snagged. After all of this time, why was she thinking of something like that? Trying to reassure herself that she had truly changed since that time, Larette reminded her heart that this was the first time she had thought anything so dark since Tseng and the others had shown her the light.

Any other time that might have helped to comfort her, but now it was only one more stone that was grinding itself in her core. "What is wrong with me?! Isn't it enough that I cry myself to sleep at night, that all my dreams are soiled extensions of my sins?" Looking down at her hands, partially expecting to see them irrevocably stained, the saddened sap saw that the shaking had only gotten worse. It was all that damned Rufus' fault that she was feeling this way! Too riled up to consider using one of the bottles of hyper in her pocket, the Turk slammed her fist into the ground. "Stupid jerk...!" Body reaching its limit as well, she could feel hot tears splashing down her cheeks, spilling over on to her pants, leaving little wet marks on her legs. What a mess she must have looked, crying there like a little child...

It was silent for a long time, other than the sound of her sobs on the walls, but it couldn't last forever. There were footsteps coming down the hall, and while there was time to try to hide (hoping that she chose the other stairwell), the female simply didn't have the strength for it, so the Turk just sat there, waiting to see who had left the boardroom first. It was probably going to be Rufus seeing how this day had gone, since he had been in the building all day and hadn't left yet. Just perfect: he was going to see the effect he had had on her, that all of his snide remarks had taken hold and were playing with the currently fragile state of her psyche. She was so drained, she couldn't even muster the strength to care...

But it wasn't Rufus - it was Reeve that had come. She could tell by the faint jingling of machine parts in his pocket. "Larette?! What are you doing here?!" The sympathy in his voice was almost worse than if Rufus had been the one to find her, because at least if it had been the blonde, his snide comments would have been well deserved. "Here, let me help you up off the floor."

He offered his hand, but she merely looked at it, wondering if she really was worthy of being a Turk after all. "...What's the point? I belong here on the floor with the dirt. Rufus was right - I'm just a joke! I'm just the one they let in out of pity," She thought of Tseng, of how he had recruited her for the team, of Reno and Rude taking her out drinking after her first mission. They all meant so much to her, but had it all been faked? Her mind wondered to the very first time she had met Reno, having to help him question _that_ witness... She had been unable to do it, at first. "because I'm too pathetic to kill."

While the Vice President's words may have had some effect on her, the dark-haired executive thought that there was more behind her words, since she had never doubted her place as a Turk before, not even after the failure of her latest mission. Larette could read the thoughts expressed in his eyes, almost as if he had said them himself, but maybe after knowing him for so long, it just became easier to guess what was in his head. Changing his tactics, Reeve joined her on the floor. "Hey, the girl I know isn't a joke - she's a fighter. She sees something she wants and she goes after it, even if she fails the first few times."

She looked at him doubtfully. "She sounds like a good pretender to me."

"The girl I know isn't pretending to be strong." Reeve smiled warmly over at Larette, patting her leg above the knee in an encouraging fashion. "She _is_ strong." He leaned over and whispered into her ear in a confidential manner, which made sense given their professions. "I have it on good authority that she can do anything she sets her mind to, even tasks that don't make sense to anyone else." Huh? She blinked at him, unsure of what he was referring to. Understanding the girl just as well as she understood him, Reeve elaborated, to a degree. "Do you remember last weekend?" Oh, _that_. "Anyone else would have given up, but not you. If you can endure that, then there's nothing you can't do."

Pretty words, but there was one thing she couldn't do, no matter how much she tried - she could never forgive herself for the past. "You make me sound so great - a little crazy and a lot stupid - but mostly really great. But I'm not really that great-"

"We all have our shortcomings." He nodded wisely, clearing intending to swat away any lingering doubts she had. "But I think that the vice president might be able to see through yours in a way that no one else can. Plus he's your own age."

Of course the conversation came back to Rufus! Larette had the distinct impression that he was was going to be a topic that she was going to hear a lot of these coming days, and knowing her co-workers, even a bit after he was out of her hair. Great. "The only thing I want Rufus to see on me is my back as I finish this job and write him off as a bad memory!"

Reeve chuckled. "Whatever you say." He sounded convinced that she had been about to do something to Rufus in that room that wasn't violent but that used up about the same amount of energy. In fact, she didn't now any better, Larette might have thought that he was implying that she actually wanted to...! "I think that you two would make a cute couple."

Rufus Shinra?! Had Reeve lost his mind?! Urugh, that man! Just who did he think he was anyway?! The almighty incarnate? Just because he was the son of the man that virtually ruled every last habitable corner of the planet did not mean that he deserved everyone's immediate adoration, that blue-eyed #$%^&*! "Hmph! That man makes my skin crawl!" Larette stuck her tongue out in distaste before suddenly growing serious, "Besides, you know how I feel about relationships."

* * *

**Guest**, good in what way? All my knowledge of Disney? My briefly mentioned theories on FF? Sorry, I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean there, and if I don't ask, it'll bug me. I know what you mean, but for me, that's more Rufus. Mmm, Rufus... Oh, is that the order it was made in? Yuffie and Cid too?! I knew that Aerith, Cloud, and Tifa made appearances, but not Cid and Yuffie! I knew that Vincent should have, but instead they used Cloud. That was one of the Kingdom Hearts games, right? Or another...? I dunno, I'm super selective over the games I play. The original Alice scares me, well technically the Cheshire Cat, but the rest of the animation isn't far behind... As for Johnny, that's a complicated matter for me. Yeah, I gathered that you were, from everything you knew about it. That's cool - peeps can love what they love, so long as they don't needlessly bash what I love. My love for it is just a memory now, since pretty much the last time I watched it was when it was running on Toonami. In show form, my love of pokemon ended a long time ago, and in the games, I stopped with the third gen (Torchic is a good place to end, I think), but besides from National Treasure, which I haven't really seen, I have to say that you have some pretty good tastes. Cardcaptors is more of a memory like Sailor Moon, but one I can recall a bit better, and my patience for Pirates... Well, to put it simply, I love the first and like the next two, but for me, it should have ended there. They could have gone in some interesting directions, but I don't that they did for some reason. I hope you don't find my words harsh - its just my own opinion, and I completely respect that they differ. But when you mean the WB and its characters, do you mean like new shows like Adventure Time, old ones like he Loony Toons, or dubs that they did, like Yugioh? If you don't feel comfortable saying it, it's fine. ^^ Oh, the Fifth Element! That's the action movie of my childhood right there! For weather/disaster flicks, that's a good one! Yeah, I've only seen one Godzilla movie, and I really can't remember it... Journey was a good movie, and I liked the sequel as well. The Mummy will live on in my heart for all eternity! Myself, I really love cartoons, weather they be Disney or aimed at older audiences, such as South Park, Archer, and Metalocalpyse. I also really love comedies and horror, Blades of Glory being one of my favorite comedies and the Hellraiser movies for horror. It's kinda ironic that I love horror though... Umm, for what I don't like... I dunno, there's plenty, but I don't know how to sum it up... I really love comics and super heroes too. Hey, it's fine to go off topic, so no sweat, alright?! And thank you. I'm glad that you're liking this so far!

Yeah! I am on a roll today! Whoot, two-for-two!

Stuff just got really intense, didn't it? But Reeve, is he trying to play match-maker in addition to future cat-robo-fortuneteller? I wonder... So is it just me, or can anyone else imagine that Reeve would carry around spare parts? Just me then. Ok.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon. Oops, Tano too!


	11. Relationships Are-

Relationships were just another way of owning another person body and soul, giving an indisputable and socially accepted excuse to extend varying levels of control - at least that's how Rufus viewed it. Sure, there was that whole publicity stunt with Cheval and then everything with the girl before that, but there was nothing there beyond empty words and even shallower promises; there once might have been a time that he had considered trying to form an honest bond, but watching everything that his mother and father had been through, the will had long-since evaporated. Concepts like love and monogamy were fodder for fools and children; yet if the idea was such an opened and closed case, why couldn't he get Reeve's words out of his head...?

The trip back to Junon was pleasant in the sense that it was completely silent in the back of the of the plane, but the dour grimace on his companion's face was killing any sense of enjoyment that the vice president might have been feeling for that fact. This girl continued to face him with nothing but the deepest fathoms of contempt, and yet that tinkerer had honestly thought that there could have been something else there between the two of them? He was familiar with the idea that hate was easy to confuse with love, but this Turk was...

Passing on the information from the pilot, the Turk sounded as if there were something weighing heavily on her mind as well, "We have to fuel up at the half-way point, but we should be arriving at the Junon airspace in another two hours or so. The head of your personal security should be meeting us there." If the female found it strange that Tano hadn't made the trip to Midgar in the first place, she didn't show it; at this moment, she wasn't really manifesting any emotion at all, since her face was an anesthetized mask of the usual disgust. "Once we meet up with him, we're to take you straight back to the apartment." Not particularly in the mood to have another row at the moment, Rufus simply gave his hand a small wave to indicate that he heard the plan and had nothing to add. This radio silence was biting, but in many ways more agreeable than their previous arrangement. But of course she had to break that golden silence with her scathing tongue. "So what do you do anyways?"

Unable to tell if it was a professional question to better understand the environment, or if it was more of a personal inquiry, he assumed that it was the first, perhaps grudgingly mixed with the later. Head slightly tilted to the side as he tried to make out what was bothering her so badly, the blonde answered her lazily, pondering if it was an intimate issue or details pertaining to security, such as a credible threat. Maybe it was just the full extent of the situation settling in at long last. "Work. The apartment has an adequate office set up in the adjoining room, where I spend most of my time. Tano should have all the details worked out, but I assume that you will be stationed either in the room itself or just outside the door. There is a guest room down the hall from my own."

Hearing the mention of the sleeping arrangements, her mouth tightened and something of the fire had returned to her eyes, the overall expression one of somebody that had just been unexpectedly slapped. "This Tano of yours, he'll be staying in the apartment as well I presume?" There was a hopeful note in her voice, as if pleading to hear that it wouldn't just be the two of them. "Maybe a small room for the maids and other staff?"

Seeing the color and life return to her face as she so visibly displayed her discomfort at the notion of being alone with him, Rufus wondered what the Turk's reaction was going to be when he broke the news that while Tano did have a room set up, he was rarely ever in it, and as far as the maid was concerned, there was a spiffy contraption that charged itself in the kitchen. Just as he was about to break that news, his phone rang; despite the sinking feeling he had in his stomach, the blonde answered the sleek device on the second ring. "Yes-"

"Everyone is talking about it!" The voice that broke through the receiver was unmistakably that of Cheval, screeching and overly dramatic as always. "All that anyone can talk about is 'Rufus Shinra's surprise departure with mystery woman'!" It sounded as if she were screaming the headline, as opposed to just saying it out loud. "Who is she?! Who's the little upstart you got into the helicopter with?!" This was exactly the reason he had told the Turk that going incognito was a bad idea, but she had insisted that it was the opposite and had donned civilian attire for the trip to Junon. "First you don't even show up at my show, and now you go running off with some little floozy?!"

In a move that either made her the best Turk he's ever seen or the dumbest, the violet-haired snowdrop (her pale skirt reminded Rufus of a flower he had seen pictured long ago in a book of his mother's) inquired if this was Cheval, "Is this her?" Smirking as if she were rather enjoying this little scene, the VP knew her better than to think that she would let such a slight stand. "Is this that the talentless hack?" Mouthing the words 'play along' so that the starlet couldn't overhear, the Turk gently placed her hand over his knee as she threw herself into the empty space at his side, "Rufus, you told me that no one was going to bother us...!"

Catching on to her game, the blonde played along, intrigued at the idea of both monsters duking it out. "I thought she had gotten the hint already."

"Ha...Hack?!" It sounded as if that was all that Cheval heard, so ultimately the girl didn't need to touch him, her fingers light as phoenix down over his pant leg, or lean closer as she whispered (loud enough to clearly be heard over the speaker) in such a sultry tone. "HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE...!" The actress went on to say a number of horrible things about the pair of them, but none nearly as offense as her closing argument. "...Only a real actress could pull off loving that blonde louse, but since you seem to have it so figured out, I say good luck getting anything out of that dried-up, impotent antique!" They had the feeling that she wasn't referring to his age. "You two obviously deserve each other!"

Urgh, there was that suggestion again! The Turk, on the other hand, only looked peeved to be lumped together - but why would she take Cheval's remark any other way, since she had already left the conference room by the time that Reeve had voiced his opinion on the matter? Half listening to the rant she was unleashing into the wind, Rufus thought that it was rather nice to hear the Turk shouting at someone else for a change of pace, although he thought that she might have sounded madder than usual... No, it must have been his imagination...

"-#$%^&*!" Catching herself mid-tirade, the Turk glanced over at Rufus, clearing her throat. "Hem, I was going to say that it's better this way. If you really want to pursue a relationship with that woman, you can do it after the mission, once you're safe and everything is back in order."

Actually, she had just done him a major favor, although he really didn't want to admit how much assistance this had been to him. "No, I agree that personal contact should be limited during the mission. Th..." He fumbled with saying the words, the syllables sliding across his tongue, so instead he took a different approach. "You weren't completely terrible back there. I can't imagine the Turks having you do such tasks, so what's the name of the poor sap you had break up with to come on this little venture?"

Rolling her eyes at the lack of gratitude, the Turk scoffed, "You really can't say the word 'thanks', can you? No, of course you can't." She finally lowered her hand from such a familiar place, edging ever closer to abandoning her seat, "And for your information, that isn't how I broke up with my boyfriend, because I don't have one. I expect someone like you wouldn't mind that kind of thing, but all relationships are are just another way to get others to do what you want them to, whether it be a father controlling his daughter or a wife steering her husband on 'the right path', and I don't want any part of that. Love is just a lie that people tell themselves to fill the emptiness, but it doesn't exist!" Jumping up from her seat, the Turk moved back to talk to the pilot, leaving him there to mull over her words...

* * *

I don't know about the rest of you, but I love getting on and finding that my story has another review! **Guest**, it's my own personal belief that one should be courteous, and that credit should be given where it's due! But thank you, it is nice to hear the compliment! Great writer... To me, that's an honor that I aspire to! Zack is my other favorite FF character! If Zack and Rufus could either be one real person or I could have both, that would be my dream right there! Ok, maybe an exaggeration on my part, but yeah they're great! Vincent, Cid, Tseng, Reno I all like, and Cloud when he's not trying to be Zack. I love little lost Cloud! Ehm, getting passed my fangirl moment, Axel is the one with the spiky red hair and cloak, right? Yeah, when I heard Vincent got the boot, I figured it was because he was too awesome, and plus the whole demon thing. Yeah, he scares me in the cartoon, but in the live version, he's one of my favorites. Strange, huh? Oh, speaking of, did you hear that they want to make a second Alice? A lot of people are fans of Johnny - like I said, my own feelings about him are complicated. Yeah, I heard that it kept getting delayed, or something like that. Hmm, I thought that they wanted to angle for two more...? Well, I heard that idea years ago, so things could have changed since then. Understood. Man, all of Ruby's scenes make me laugh! Me and my mom have this thing where we'll say that little 'Buzzz' part randomly. Rachel Weisz was actually the only actress they auditioned for the part in the very first movie, so it's a fact to say that she IS evy. Ok, maybe I'm a tinsy biased, but whatever. Yeah, not everyone agrees with South Park. The one where they use Head and Shoulders on the alien? Or was that something else...? I'm a really big chicken, that's why its ironic that I love horror. I'm not as a big a reader as I used to be. I'm glad! And I'm glad that you like Larette! Writing OCS is my thing, so it's always nice to hear that they've come out ok! Reeve seems really underappreciated to me, which is a shame.

A little Pirate moment there, for my fellow Disney-kid! And also, some lighter stuff that further develops the characters and their... feelings. Those darn feels anyways! But I wonder... Well, no, this seems like good timing... Hmm...

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon. Oops, Tano too!


	12. The Ghost Lives

Larette didn't speak to Rufus once for the remainder of the flight after divulging how she felt about relationships and turning towards the cockpit, not once, although she did notice that her gaze had shifted in his general direction when she thought that he wasn't looking. Hmph, that spoiled little scab thought he was so great, didn't he? Well contrary to how he lived his life, he wasn't! Fuming over the fact that she had shared yet another piece of personal information with that #$%^&*#$, the Turk had made herself busy with her work, so that she didn't have to reflect on the thoughts that had worked their way into her mind after all this time, or Reeve suggesting that she liked Rufus. Instead she forced herself to focus on what the pilot was doing, but the co-pilot's accompanying lecture was so so dull that her mind had disobeyed her wishes and started to wander...

Far from the truth as some of those accusations were, the call with Cheval had been rather fun, even with his lack of gratitude and the razor-sharp reminder of Reeve's parting words to her. That conversation was far less enjoyable, and since it had been both the last thing on her mind before she had been able to sleep that night and one of the last friendly talks she had had in Midgar, the words of the engineer stuck with her, haunting her waking and sleeping thoughts. True, they had been close for a while now, but what made the tinkerer from next door so certain that he knew what she was into? Closing her eyes and shutting out everything around her - with no small level of difficulty - the Turk recalled Reeve's exact words. _Look me in the eye and tell me that you don't feel something strong._

Perched in the back of the cockpit, her answer now was the same has it had been then: vehement denial that she felt anything other than repulsion for the blonde she had just been tied to. She did her utmost to make that perfectly clear, even as they got off of the helicopter and made their way through the security checkpoint, where a tall figure in an untidy gray pinstripe suit was waiting for them. Talking on a cellphone, his back was to the duo as they were cleared to go on, a long black ponytail tied with epiolnis plumage hanging low between his shoulder blades. Something about that hairstyle seemed so familiar., as if she had seen it in another life... The grubby face of a young green-eyed boy flashed before her eyes... No... It couldn't be! Could it?!

"Tanokoi?!" The name was out of her lips before he could even turn around, but once he was properly facing the VP and new arrival, his bright jade eyes widened in shock. There was no mistaking those rich almonds - it really was him! "Tani, is that really you?!" Tanokoi, whom she had affectionately called Tani, was a boy that she had grown up with in Gongaga, and her closest childhood friend. But she thought that he had been with their parents when it happened, so what was he still doing here, alive and well? It was a moment that should have been jubilant, but...

_The sky had turned dark even though it was only mid-day, the air thick with swirling ash; The Turks must have gotten to the village already, and either someone had started a fire and burned her mother's special mixture in a dicey bid to evacuate as many as possible, or one of the Turks had lit the entire supply to trap everyone in the dense smog. Judging from the lack of a stampede around her, it was undoubtedly the later. But that didn't matter, because she had already made sure they were no where near the village before leading the Turks to their target. Grateful for the head start Tseng had given her to clear out the innocent, Larette booked it to the place where the three of them had agreed to meet during emergencies and times of boredom._

_Scampering in all possible haste from the community that had been set up just outside of Gongaga, she __could already feel the heavy soot staining her insides, filling them, threating to overwhelm her, but she had to use this time to find them, to make sure that they were alright. If only she could reach them, warn them to run, they might still have a chance to avoid the fate of the others... Urging her legs to run faster, Larette ran beyond the howling wreckage of their make-shift camp, speeding towards the little hollow that the three of them would play in. If only she could save them, then she still might be able to carry on..._

_"Caris, Tani, please...!" She put on even more speed, pleading that she would be able to save them from having to pay the price of what their parents had so delusively called 'justice'. Caris was innocent, still just a kid, and Tani was her age, but he was still harboring the ideal that their parents were doing a good thing for the world by making anyone connected to Shinra pay. He was just a dumb boy, trying to make his parents proud, so he shouldn't have to suffer like them. In fact, he wasn't even there the day that had made Larette decide on this course of action... "Even if you can't understand, please, be safe!"_

___Breaking through the concealing brambles that hid the path at break-neck speed, skin scratched up a raw pink and clothes torn at the edges, Larette had finally made it to the clearing, but to her utter horror, it was empty... No, that couldn't be right! They had to be here! She sent them here to protect them! They just had to be here! If they weren't there at the appointed meeting place, the only other option was that they had returned the village while she was getting the Turks... Which meant that they were back there now, probably already... Unable to think the words, the girl frantically searched the area in the hopes that this was some stupid joke and they they were just hiding, even though she knew deep in her heart that it was futile. She had failed the two people that meant something to her, the two things that were pure in this skewered world her family and their friends had tried to create..._

___The screams from the village were slowly coming to a stop, meaning that the Turks were almost finished with their job, but she could bring herself to return to the village like she had promised Tseng; instead she kept searching for clues that Tani had taken Caris away and was protecting her, but even with the tears blearing her eyes, she could see that there was no such event. Unable to slow down and stop so it could sink in, unwilling to even try at this point, the girl kept sprinting, up until she slid on the uneven earth, tripping down a steep and rocky slope, landing on the forest floor a good distance away. Having come to an abrupt stop against a rather girthy tree from her tumbling free fall, she remained in place, crying loudly over her failure, more frustrated than sad at that moment that they hadn't listened to her and had returned home, even after she had urged them to wait in the clearing for her._

___By the time that Tseng had found her, everything had begun to ebb away as the pain took over; she was positive that she ____had broken a rib during the impact alone, but the pain was nothing compared to the emptiness inside her chest. __She was too late to save them..._

Hanging up the phone and tucking it just inside his suit, the head of Rufus' security abandoned all pretexts of propriety and ran to greet the Turk as more than an old friend, his arms tight around her waist as he swung her through the air. "Larette!" Grinning from ear-to-ear, he set her back down on the ground, showing off his new growth-spurt. "Look at you! A Turk!"

Just seeing him again, her heart felt like it was going to burst open in elation, the years melting away between them so that they were back in happier times, kids in adult bodies and all pain far behind them. "Tani! Look at you! Alive, and strong, and taller than me now!" Back when they were just a couple of kids, she had been the taller of the two, but now he was able to handle her so easily, without dragging her toes through the dirt. "You look good!" Tilting her head back, she realized just how good he looked now, but she saw that there was something different about his face that hadn't been there before. "That scar..." Her heart sank, just as quickly as it had inflated. "It's because of me, isn't it...?"

What her family was doing was wrong, and she always knew that somehow, but it wasn't until her father's blood-lust had sent a team of them out to murder the family of a low-ranking Shinra employee that she realized just how terrible their actions really were. Though she had been punished for it later, Larette had refused to hurt that woman and her newborn baby; it had been that moment that made her loath her father and the lot of them, and that had given her the resolve and stomach to see her through her first mission as a Turk, but Tani... She never wanted to hurt Tani.

Lifting her jaw with one of his strong hands so that she could look him in the eye, Tanokoi - now known as Tano apparently - smiled. More than a warm, friendly gesture, she could see that he didn't hold it against her - either that or he was a very good actor. No, the Tanokoi she knew wasn't a good liar in the slightest, although it would have made sense if he blamed her, but his eyes truly looked as if he had put it in the past. "Hey, you did what you thought was for the best. No one can blame you for that."

If only were that simple for her... "I blame myself everyday." Alerting Shinra to what they had been doing to its employees, and then helping the Turks, it was a defining time for her, but one that still weighed heavily on her conscience. "I should be blamed... But you... You're alive, and that means more to me than I can say. I've really missed you... You and Caris..." Larette looked hopefully at Tano, thinking that maybe if he was still somehow alive after all this time, she might have been too.

Clearly forlorn by her fate, he was only able to muster a weak shake of the head...

* * *

Thank you so much for the support, **Guest**! Seriously, Zack is just the sweetest! Yeah, those kinds of dreams always are the best kinds. Looking at him, I wouldn't have guessed that they had similar personalities... No, I mean the remake/sorta sequel is getting the sequel, so more Johnny. Cool ^^ I want to be nice and give her the benefit of the doubt, but so long as she's trying to be Evy, I just can't do it. It's cool, people have reasons for not liking things, and South Park has given more than its fair share of reasons to hate it. No, not many people can be. I know that even if I can hold it together during the movie, I can't after. Yeah, sci-fi is a so-so area with me, because I really love Star Wars, but other stuff I'm meh with. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that! If anything, I find it stranger that I like both sides of things, as opposed to one or the other, but that's just me. Thanks again! And shout out to **frankannestein**!

So more of Larette's past is uncovered, and Tano is finally introduced! Such a sad tale...

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette. And Carriyon. Oops, Tano too! Only took 12 chapters to realize it, but Cheval is mine as well! Caris as well.


	13. Not The Position She Was Hired For

Standing in the middle of the bustling airspace as Tano and that blasted Turk shared some sort of intimate reunion, white-clad arms crossed moodily as their once deep relationship revealed itself for what it had been - interesting, for a girl that had only just gotten through telling him that she disavowed the notion of love and monogamy - the blonde was actually taken aback to see how openly familiar they were being with the other. Honestly, it was as if the duo had no qualms about the way that Tano had taken the girl in his arms and had just begun to swing her around as if they were lovers on a date that was going very well, and not two employees at work in the middle of a swamped public environment. It was a tawdry display to say the least, and by far one of the most unprofessional things he had seen this Turk do yet, and that was saying something. Hmph, it was completely uncalled for for them to be so happy and so handsy in his vacinity. And Reeve thought that he - Rufus Shinra - could actually like someone like that Larette woman?! Preposterous.

Very possibly on the verge of gaging from this little demonstration, Rufus watched as the exhibit progressed into a complete horror show. "You look good!" Ergh, the blonde could see that the female had discarded what dignity she actually possessed as the tactless Turk openly ogled his head of security; perhaps it was only his imagination, but he could have sworn he saw some actual drool hanging from her vulnerable lips. To make the sight that much more appalling, she suddenly became contrite, a feeling he would have sworn she was incapable of. "That scar... It's because of me, isn't it...?"

Convinced that if this did progress any further he just might actually be sick, the businessman couldn't take his eyes off of the event comparable to a train wreck, even as Tano took her face in his hands in a certain kind of fashion, a reassuring smile on his face. "Hey, you did what you thought was for the best. No one can blame you for that." Whatever had happened between the both of them, it looked as if it were serious, and had a rather nasty ending that was out of their of their hands... Still though, it wouldn't have killed them to save it until they were back at the apartment and in a private room away from his presence. If he had ever been swayed in such a manner, Rufus was sure that he would have had that decency...

Whatever Tano would try to say to comfort her, it was obvious by the muted honey in her eyes that she couldn't forgive herself, "I blame myself everyday." Whichever her story was, this was probably the point where her connection with the Turks came in, although that was just his hunch. "I should be blamed... But you... You're alive, and that means more to me than I can say. I've really missed you... You and Caris..." The Turk looked hopefully at Tano then, no doubt expecting another miracle, but instead all she got was a morose silence and a small jerk of the head.

Feeling as if that as good a time as any to remind them of the present situation, Rufus cleared his throat irritably, glowering at the two of them. "When you're finished, you do have a job that you should be doing. Or," He turned his attention back on that woman, fully intending to report this to Tseng later, "Is it suddenly a new policy in the Turks to no longer perform their duty to the best of their ability? If so, I'm sure that the president will be delighted to hear about it, and anyone else that wants that part of the company funding."

Flashing him that scathing look of hers - the one that seemed to be reserved special - the Turk frowned at Rufus, looking as of she had a mouthful of her usual venom to hurl at him, but if that was the case, he never found out, since the next thing he knew, everything was a rapid-paced sequence of instantaneous sound and blurred movements. One moment, there was a sudden banging in the air, followed by a piercing ringing, and a dazzling flash of light. The only thing that he knew for certain was that he had been thrown back into Tano as she pulled out a hidden gun (he assumed that it was smuggled in under her skirt, since he had noticed a dark strap around her thigh when they had been sitting together on the helicopter). With a speed that his blue eyes were only just able to keep up with, the Turk had shot not one but two snipers, the body of the first falling to the pavement some yards away.

Ok, she had some skill, but he wasn't about start patting her on the back for such an easy accomplishment, since anyone there could have done what the Turk just did. "Good for you for catching such low-level enemies. What's your next trick, actually doing your job so they don't get this close to me again?" Had Tano not been so distracted by her, he easily could have accomplished the same results. "If we didn't just get back, I would consider calling in a transfer, but lucky for Tano here, you're stuck here until this is resolved."

Cheeks tinting, Tano muttered something under his breath, but it didn't sound like an apology, so Rufus didn't care what he had to say for himself. Motioning for the clean-up crew to come do their jobs and dispose of the trash, the masculine security showed the blonde and the Turk forward. "Right this way sir. Larette. Come on, before any of their friends show up and endanger the civilians."

* * *

Wow, I thought that you would have ranked Reno first! May I ask why you didn't? Oh, so it supposed to be based upon the second book? I haven't read the books, but I really want to. Yeah, I keep a close eye on IMDb, and so far I'm not stoked for the new trilogy. The spin-off, yes (especially if it is about Boba Fett), but the official stuff, not so much. Yeah, who does Mark Hamil not play? Seriously, he does a lot of voice-over work. Thanks!

Part of me wonders if this story is getting a tad too intensive to keep it at a 'T' rating. I mean the language is all bleeped, and there really hasn't been too much sexual content, but the actual idea behind Larette's backstory... I dunno, it seems kinda borderline. It's probably fine and I'm just worrying for nothing, but maybe it is getting on the stronger side of 'T'? I'd like to hear opinions on that matter, if it isn't too much trouble. Oh-ho! I don't know if anyone else noticed it or not, but so far Rufus has pretty much just referred to Larette as either 'that Turk' or 'that woman' (or basic equivalents), but he finally used her name! Maybe it's just in his mind, but still, that is progress. And to not have him be upset over the reunion just would have felt wrong.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris. Lotta 'C' names, but in my defense, Caris was a character that appeared in the original story.


	14. Limit Break 2, pt 1

So maybe the apartment wasn't quite as big as she might have expected under the conditions, but that didn't mean that it was any less plush; the ecru walls were lined with muted watercolor paintings (mostly floral in nature), the floors a lightly bleached blackwood, the furniture embroidered silk and kissed with touches of pale gold. The color scheme was fitting for her charge, as was the gilded ivory lacing up the fireplace, sprawling from the mantle into sturdy shelves lined with all manner of reading material. A small ceiling fan whirled silently overhead, almost blending perfectly with it's surroundings. The Turk had to hand it to whoever had put this all together; to put it simply, this place really was pretty...

Mesmerized by the captivating enchantment of this breathtakingly beautiful room, Larette glanced over at the other two to see if she had been the only one rendered awestruck; Tano looked grossly underwhelmed, but she liked to think that it was only because of how often his work had brought him through the building. Rufus, on the other hand, was watching her reaction to the room, and spotting the appreciative look on her face, was quick to be smug with the young lady. "So you do have some taste after all. I came up with the design while I was under Tseng's care."

Honestly, she had no idea which of the two factors surprised her the most - the fact that Rufus had a hobby, and that it was designing home decor in his spare time, or that he was actually able to put together something as gorgeous as this living room. "There are worse places to be stuck, I'll give you that much." Being the kind of guy he was, the blonde undoubtedly would want to chime in at that point, but she sped on, not giving him that outcome if she could help it. "But let me ask you two things: how often is any of this ever used?" To answer her own question, the Turk walked over to the fireplace and examined the sterile insides, finding that it had never been lit, and going to look at the bookshelf, it was quickly apparent that none of the books had ever been touched. "Like I thought - hollow. Which brings me to my second question: is the rest of the place just as empty, or is it only this room that's for show?" The young woman wanted to press her point further and compare that barren desolation to his own, but Tano had turned to the door at that moment and was about to depart amid their pointless squabbling. "We just got here, where are you going?"

Shrugging, he addressed her more than Rufus, since the Vice President probably already knew what the plan was. "Work. As fun as this is to watch," He directly indicated the suit and spy, most likely seeing upon his first impression that they were at fundamental odds, "some of us still have jobs to do before we can sleep. Besides, one of the reasons you were brought on is because I can't be two places at once, and sadly our men aren't near our levels, so I'm really counting on you." The one-man security force nodded earnestly to affirm this point. "If the second sniper survived, I might be able to get a lead out of him, but if not... Well, I'm better at making personal connections anyways." That was true - even back as kids, he always was good at socializing, especially if that meant making seedy contacts. "I left the protocols in your room, so you can take a gander over those when you get the chance. In the meantime, you should focus on settling in."

But... "I want to go out there and help you chase those #$%^&*#$! After shooting those guys, I'm pumped - I want to see some action and...!" Realizing that she was getting carried away with being rambunctious, Larette cleared her throat, muttering under her breath that she hadn't been able to see any field action since getting in trouble. "But I guess you're right - they probably would talk sooner to someone they're more familiar with, even if I did got out there like this." Swinging her hips slightly side-to-side to make her skirt billow, she needlessly reminded them that she was not in uniform but the grab of a civilian. 'The gift from above' looked like he wanted to say something to that effect, but the Turk temporarily silenced him by jerking her thumb over her shoulder in his general vicinity. "And I guess that he needs supervision, so I suppose that I'll see you whenever I see you." Ignoring the Vice President's scoff of indignation at how he was being addressed, there was something in the blonde's face that made her think of what it would be like once they were completely alone together. Disturbed by that visual, the Turk shuddered involuntarily. "You better hurry up and catch these guys fast, now that you don't have to worry about leaving him unprotected - I don't know if I can keep myself from doing something stupid for long..."

"Is that what you worry about?" Rufus interjected before Tano got the opportunity to so much as open his mouth, or Larette to interfere in any magnitude, glaring with those biting blue orbs that somehow had a way of staying visible in her mind's eye log after he looked away. Hmph, yet another charming attribute to add to the ever-expanding list. "Really? Doing something stupid? Well if you're concerned in any capacity, stupidity is surely assured." Urgh, that man! The sooner this was over, the better!

* * *

So you rank it fair. That's good of you - I don't know how I'd rank it myself (plus I really only know FFvii characters). And aside from your good ol' bias, I'm also partial to 'the villain', or really anyone that's dark, twisted, or generally complex (Loki's a great example there). A proper remake would be nice, but what do you mean about special episodes? Yeah, I know. It seems like everything these days is based on something else; it seems like there are almost no original ideas anymore... I like musicals as well, but my knowledge is pretty mainstream, so I pretty much don't know about it until it hits movie form. I've never seen Boy in The Stripped Pajamas, mostly because its the kind of thing I don't go out or my way for. Wiki's a pretty good source (I use wikia,which is basically the same thing, right?), but I take it with an extra grain of salt, and mostly I use it for some of my shows or to fact-check/research/refresh my memory. So how many Kingdom Heart games are there? I know that there's the three (counting 3), Birth by Sleep, and 2.5, but part of me wants to say that there might be another... Wait, what? Sorry, the wording on that last bit threw me (that happens).

Yes, the title of the previous chapter was a reference to Spider-Man. Because everyone needs a hobby, and why not home decor? Thanks to **Guest**, as always, and thanks as well to my mom and Ryan Gosling (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) for helping me figure out how to proceed with the later half of this chapter! So maybe it was just a small spark of inspiration, but darn it, inspiration is inspiration! This chapter did take longer than I wanted it to, I admit, because I wasn't happy with how it came out, but when I switched the POV to that of Rufs, everything just clicked! Well, I suppose that you'll see what I mean in the next chapter! To be clear, I posted both chapters 14 and 15 at the same time.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	15. Limit Break 2, pt 2

"Uh-huh..." If Rufus hadn't known the other male to such a degree by this juncture, the blonde would have thought that he had conceived a very foolish idea in his mind, but if that was the case, and the dark-haired lingerer had suddenly gotten it into his mind that he had just noticed something between himself and the Turk... Shooting dubious looks from one to the other, it would appear as if Tano had reached the same harebrained conclusion that Reeve had, a crooked grin stretching across his face as if he found it highly amusing. Rufus had to disagree, however, since there was nothing remotely worthwhile about that Turk, unless you counted the sheer number of mistakes she had made in the span of less than a week. Really, that woman was the sort that made intolerable arrangements suddenly that much more appealing by comparison, and that was even factoring in her expressive sepia orbs. Hmph, fancy a woman like that difficult beast? Preposterous! "Just try not to make a mess, alright?" The raven chuckled to himself as if he had just shed light on something funny, opening the door, "In fact, I think I'll call before coming back, just in case you two are indisposed..."

In the highly unlikely event that that grim occurrence became a reality, the Vice President would have gladly welcomed the intrusion, so he could be saved from that wretch! But while he was only abhorred at the thought, the moody storm cloud herself had once more taken the defensive path, kicking the door closed on Tano before he could properly pass through it, her voice more of a roar as she spat, "Well it's official: All of the guys I know are complete morons! Obviously the only thing we feel for each other is loathing, so why is it so #$%^&*# hard for them to get that through their thick skulls?!" She frowned over at him, as if debating how she could possibly make this out to be his fault, "And you...! There's nothing good about you, let alone great, so why is everyone...?! #%^&* #$%^& $^&*^%$#$% !"

Endeavoring to storm off like the predictable hurricane she was, the Turk missed the dangerous gleam in Rufus' eyes as her stinging comments sunk in - what, did she really labor under the misconception that she was some sort of catch? - but he could tell by the inflection in her eyes as they became steadily murkier that she certainly did feel his hand lock around her wrist. He didn't even have to look at the alarm in her face to know that she had been caught unawares to find that his grasp was like a mithril infused crystal vice, and far stronger than she would have expected for a 'condescending, egotistical, pompous non-combatant', or whatever she would call him. "Let go!"

Having the distinct impression that had it been anyone else other than an executive board member who had grabbed her like that, the Turk would have put them in their place and had them on the ground in two seconds or less, the blonde would have bet good money that being him, she was still deliberating about acting on instinct. If they could set aside professional standing, it would have been very interesting to see what would transpire exactly. Either way, when all was said and done, he wasn't the kind of guy to sit back and take that kind of remark lightly. "Care to run that by me again?"

Refusing to answer with her words, eyes burning her hatred into his own as she struggled against the hold he had on her wrist, the Turk began to grapple against his grip, yanking her arm back with as much force as she could possibly muster, which in fairness was quite a bit. But she had exerted too much momentum, and their short-lived scuffle for dominance ended expeditiously, with neither being crowned the victor. To put it another way, the back and froth movement coupled with her brute strength had caused a serious misstep that saw them both spread horizontal and more startled than in pain.

Although, if the blonde looked at it a certain way, he didn't completely lose that little altercation, since she had pulled him down on top of her; perhaps on a subconscious level, that wasn't an accident but a form of her admitting that he was better than her, since this landing formation was mostly her doing. Seriously, how she could continue to turn her nose up to _him_ was a puzzlement. "Still think that you're above me?"

"Move your hand!" Tossing his appendage off of its current location, it occurred to Rufus for the first time exactly _how_ they had landed; sprawled against the plush carpeting with her ribbons of violet and lavender raying out in every which direction, it just so happened that he was straddling the Turk, one hand thrown against the side of her cheek to guard from the inevitable impact that really didn't come, and the other was... "There are only a handful of people-" He couldn't help but to smirk at the unfortunate choice of words she had employed. "-that can touch that particular region, and you are not one of them!" He wondered distantly if Tano was still counted on that list at all; maybe if he hadn't been the catalyst for this little trip to second, it would have been a possibility, but as it it stood, Rufus would hazard that it was a sound no-go.

Finding it rather hilarious either way, the businessman couldn't help but to grin at her absurd declaration. "Haha!" He was laughing so hard at the woman, it was only a matter of time before he was doubled over in peals of mirth, his forehead parallel to her collarbone. "Oh, I needed that!" Calming down finally after a good forty-five seconds, he attempted to face her seriously, although something about that was kinda hard at this point. "You can jest all you want," yet another chuckle escaped from the Vice President's lips, making it that much more arduous to be serious. "but I want to know exactly makes you-"

Cut off from finishing that thought, the door had opened at that exact moment and Tano stood frozen in the frame, glancing down at the pair of them in such an undignified position. Naturally this would only lend credence to what he thought was some kind of fling. "I was only joking about calling first - I didn't think that you two would get to business so fast! Although," the guard snickered at the downed duo, "I can't say I'm exactly surprised, since Larette always was the aggressive one that went after what she wanted, and I know for fact that it's been a long time since you've had any nooky, Mr. Vice President..." He trailed off for a moment, allowing the words to take effect. "But Larette, really? Since when have you yielded to being on the bo-"

Flushing and downright humiliated - although he was in the same boat himself, he was sure - the Turk crawled out from underneath Rufus, and once she was free (it probably would have been a better idea for her to go the other way though, given what she was wearing) the girl looked at Tano as if she wanted to say something. Rufus wasn't sure if the other guy had noticed it or not, but she looked close to tears, so instead of doing her thing and scream and shout, she promptly ran down the hall, slamming the door behind her. Standing up and dusting himself off, Rufus simply shook his head at Tano, indicating that he should hurry and leave.

* * *

Like I said in the last chapter, this part gave me a difficult time to write, but once I switched perspectives, it began to flow! So yeah, I assume that the reason Tano is being like he is (in terms of Larette and Rufus), is probably because he accepted long ago that she had moved on, and in that time he had moved on, so it was a fond look back, but not an 'oh, we must pick up exactly where he left off' kind of thing. Plus he sees how those two are acting, so he probably figures that it's best to let that one happen. Anyways, yeah, a bit of sexual content here, and a lot of laughter. Remember, chapters 14 and 15 were posted together at the same time.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	16. Not Exactly Alone

The absolute worst part about being sequestered together in the apartment was that there was no escaping the fact that they had to face the other on a daily basis; as unbearable a fate as that sounded in theory, the reality of it was so much worse given how they had started off the first twenty-four hours of this lovely little arrangement. The first time they had spoken was unacceptable, the meeting to cover the schematics of things dreadful, and the arrival at the residence in Junon was atrocious - and yet that was only the beginning of the bad news, since things continued to be besmirched. Subsequently from that point on Rufus had found himself not only touching the Turk but actually bestriding her, and to make things even more mortifying, Tano had inexplicably came back to find them in that position, furthering any suspiciousness he undoubtedly had about the pair of them being in a relationship. Understandably, that had set the woman off, having her past seeing her in the arms of someone she so vehemently professed to loath; but that wasn't even the highlight of the night...

_From what little he knew of her by this point (which in technical terms was probably far too much for a Turk), Rufus was thoroughly convinced that running away was the furthest thing from Larette's style, so he followed after her once he saw to it that Tano was gone and the door secured. He wasn't entirely sure what drove him to do this, if it was genuine concern for her wellbeing - or some such thought along those lines - or something else, but whatever the reason, he sought her out, finding her not in the guest room that had been arranged for her, but in his own chambers. Under the circumstances, he allowed that she was thinking even less rationally than normal, and that being her first time in the apartment without a tour, she was bound to make such an error; any other time, he wouldn't have been so lenient on the tears staining his fine satin sheets._

_Slowly bringing her head up from where it was cradled in her knees, she hastily made to rub away her eyes with the back of her hand. "What do you want?! Here to gloat about me looking like such a fool? Or maybe you just... Oh, I don't know!" She made a sound that was part sob, part hiccup, and part sigh. "You just like to watch me suffer, don't you?" Even trying to avoid eye contact with him, Rufus could see the defeat shining in their light brown depths. ''What Tano said back there... I... I'm not like that, not anymore. I mean professionally, if its my target, I give it my all as a Turk and don't relent, but personally, I don't..." The lingering pink in her cheeks intensified. "I'm not that kind of a woman."_

_Wait, between getting caught by her childhood whatever and having to crawl out from underneath the blonde, what bothered her the most was how he had taken Tano's words? "Actually, I was just going to have a drink - would you care to join me?" Seeing the funny look she was giving him, Rufus went on to say in a somewhat flat, rehearsed sort of way, "Since you're suck here anyways, I might as well as make some use out of your company, and drinking alone can be... Well, I'm sure you know." Walking over to the little model of Midgar in the far corner of the bedroom, he proceeded to open the exact replica of the Shinra building and extract one of the few stemware glasses inside, holding it out to her. "It'll make you feel better."_

_Hesitant, the Turk accepted the glass. Watching him walk around and offer each kind of drink that was contained within the miniature reactors, there was something she wondered out loud. "...I ran into the wrong room, didn't I?" When he didn't immediately answer, she continued, "It's not that I don't appreciate it, but why are you suddenly..." She trailed off, chewing over which word to use for his unexpected behavior. "It's just that I'd never thought I'd see the day that you'd act this way towards me... Treating me like a real human being isn't you."_

_"Hmph." Well, to be honest, he didn't entirely understand it himself, but in truth it probably had something to do with Tano and his words. And... Well, it wasn't completely terrible being that close to someone, even if _she_ was that particular someone that just so happened to be there. "...This is a particular sweet concoction from Wutai, I think you'll like it." Pouring the contents of a rich burgundy color into the glass in the Turk's hand, Rufus poured himself some as well before putting the bottle back in its resting place, although he did leave the top of Section 4 off so that they could come back to it for refills. "To some peace of mind..." Fleeting though as it might be._

With not even a guess as to what had happened the previous night, the blonde had woken up either hours late into the following night or shortly before dawn would arrive, holding his head against the pillow to steady it against the revolving horror-house carousel. Apart from the whirling of the room, he could tell that his back was to the window so that the weak light permeating the window was hardly an afterthought, and the hand that wasn't pressing the side of the pillow into his ear was brushed against something or someone with gentle curves and soft skin. Discovering that he wasn't alone on this merry-go-round of living nightmares, the Vice President's first thought was of Larette.

Eyes still heavy and not wanting to see what he thought he was going to see, Rufus held his breath so he didn't miss the steady breathing coming from the thing laying at his side; it really wasn't that hard to hear it, actually, since the air was rent with heavy snores that could give chainsaws headaches. Chancing a peek, the blonde lowered his arm and allowed the pillow to flatten itself before tilting his head slightly to the side. "Larette?!"

And that was why he choose to drink alone...

* * *

Guest, thank you so much for reviewing every chapter so far! And also, yeah, Hojo is undoubtedly the main villain through it all, and one that I don't like in the slightest (unless you count a certain abridged version, in which case I find him hilarious). All time evil villain...? Hmm, I don't really have an answer for that, since there are a so many good contenders in the world (both fictional and real). Oh! That's pretty cool, but sad that there are only three... Like I said, it just never interested me, but hearing that... Yeah, definitely sounds like one to avoid. That's a lot, but looking back, I realize that the only ones I've never heard about was the Coded one and 1.5, although I never knew what all three 'D's stood for. Well, I suppose that mini-games for FFvii are better than no game. Thanks again!

Leave it to Rufus to be more concerned for the material than for the human being. Anyways, yep, they just were in bed together. I just hope that this doesn't lose too many viewers... Well hopefully everyone will stuck around for the next chapter, so see how I progress from here...

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	17. Company For The Lonesome

Without question, the single most taxing thing about being confined to the same stationary location for days on end was not that there were only so many ways to entertain one's self, but that the young woman was running out of ways to escape from her own mind. As a Turk, it was her duty to guard the Vice President, so checking out physically was out of the question, and with Tano always out chasing down leads she couldn't talk to anyone else, so all that really left was books, but no matter what she had picked up so far, nothing had been able to hold her interest for long. Was it really so wrong to not want to think about her first twenty-four hours in this plastic palace? Apparently, since the Turk's mind refused to forget what had happened that night for even a moment, all she could do was dwell on it. Typical.

Thinking more and more about that time, the very last thing that Larette remembered was Rufus having poured the umpteenth glass that night, the liquor swaying dangerously as he sashayed over to the bed where she had been sitting, gazing through the contents of a manila folder marked as 'private'; flipping through sketches of floor plans and furniture, it was full of various ideas for the apartment, some of which looked new. Explaining what had inspired this idea or had changed his mind about adding that, the blonde had taken a seat at the Turk's side and had joined her in looking through the design plans - overall, it had been a nice experience to talk without wanting to claw his eyes out. Shocking too. Eventually, the conversation had shifted from clashing wood finishes to more intimate subjects, such as why they both disdained relationships...

_It terrified her at first, opening up about how her parents had raised both her and her younger sister, using their position as their 'caring' mother and father to manipulate them into seeing the world like they did, but between all the liquor buzzing through her veins and him admitting that his own parents had been lousy role models for how a functioning union should work, she was able to reveal the wound, and in doing so, had also been able to let it go. It was cleansing, being able to share that with someone that could actually relate, but it also made her wonder... If she had had been able to impart her past so freely - and to Rufus of all people - was there some merit to what Reeve and Tano had suggested?_

___"To explain that, first I need to tell you how I came to be a Turk, and the person I am now. I know you probably already read through all my records, so you know that Tseng was leading an investigation into the disappearance of Shinra employees and their families that had started in the Gongaga area. A small rebel faction had been located rather quickly, but only a handful had been apprehended, and of them, only one was cooperative. I'm not sure if it was recorded or not, but I was the one that had been leaving clues behind so someone could put a stop to what my family was doing. Anyways, I made a deal with Tseng, that I would give them the ones behind everything, in exchange for the safety of Tanokoi and my little sister, Caris - I told him that they could do what they would with me, because even if turning them in was the right thing, they were still my family. For some reason, after bringing me back from a failed attempt at extraction, he took me back to Midgar with him - he said that he wanted to see if I had it in me to be a Turk. To this day, I still think it was pity, luck, and being able to withstand taking a beating on top of torture..." Larette clarified at the questioning look on Rufus' face. "My father wasn't a very kind man, and to protect what was important to me, I would volunteer to take their place as often as I could."_

___"Anyways, what the reports won't tell you is how I came to see the light - simply put, it was a boy: Zack Fair was his name. I don't know what happened to him after I was taken in by the Turks, but I'd like to think that it was nothing but good things, since he deserves it for having such a kind heart. Anyways, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself here. My ____father was the absolute worst - He and my mother practically brainwashed me and my sister, but worse than that, his lies also poisoned the minds of other's and their children. Because of him, I never really knew what right and wrong was, not until I met Zack." She thought of the spiky-headed youth that had shown her that there was another way, "Even with how I was, he didn't grudge me for not knowing better." The Turk sighed, missing the friend that she had made, "But surely even you can tell that I liked Tanokoi more. Tani was a good kid - he just had a problem thinking for himself back then. Looking back, I think I probably should have went for Zack..." But no, she had to be the dumb girl that went for the dumb boy and had passed on a good thing. "Well, it doesn't matter now anyways."_

_________Taking a lax hold of her arm that was more of an awkward attempt at a pat, the blonde nodded solemnly, deciphering that her reasons were born of fear. Fear truly was a powerful tool. "I didn't get it right away being a kid, but it was easy enough to catch on when I was older just how miserable my parents were. My father was never around - he was either too busy with work or philandering - and my mother was there, technically, but I had the sense she was miles away... They didn't love each other, I don't even think that they liked each other much, and it wasn't like they were trying to pretend for my sake, but they stayed together. It was probably only because a divorce would have looked bad for the company."_

___Resting her head against his shoulder - ok, so maybe it was more like slumped over in a wave of oncoming sleep - Larette looked up at Rufus through blurry eyes, "I never would have thought..." Endeavoring to reciprocate the gesture of patting him sympathetically, the Turk completely missed her mark and instead ended up falling back on the mattress, so that she was looking at the ceiling. The Turk had been intending on saying something along the lines of how he was the first person she spoke of this to to understand where she was coming from, and that she was grateful for him confiding something to her, but more than that, she wanted to tell him that she might have misjudged him. "Unions... unions are like a slow-acting noose. My dad controlled us, and I was afraid of that happening... again... But you..." And like a light, she was out._

The exact details were hazy, but at some point during the night, the young woman had been awoken by a pair of strong arms embracing her as she laid in that unfamiliar room, which might have been fine if they weren't followed by a gentle flicker on the nape of her neck, rousing her fully from her short-lived nap. Alarmed to say the least, the woman had barely to crane her neck to see a tuft of the Vice President's vibrant blonde locks poking into her peripherals. "Rufus?!"

In a far deeper sleep than she had been blessed with, he didn't reply - in fact, he didn't even move a muscle. Seeing the perfect chance to break away and make it so this night never happened, she gingerly removed herself from his grasp, tip-toeing to the door; one hand on the knob and just waiting to turn it, the Turk glanced back over at Rufus one last time. Not entirely sure what had possessed her to act in such a manner, all desire to leave it be was washed away as he muttered something in his sleep. _Don't go._ Obviously the words had other intentions, but there was something about the way that the blonde had said it that made her want to stay and keep him company.

It dawned on her then why he was so cold. "That kind of loneliness..." She closed her own eyes as she lingered at the portal to her escape, "I know it too. But... Is it right to leave you like this when I can help even a little?" Setting aside that she was a Turk for a moment, even as a human being, she wasn't so sure about abandoning him like this, although, there was the other side of that coin as well. "But if I stay... What does that mean? I don't know..."

* * *

So basically, if you didn't read the last chapter, her side fits into the blanks of Rufus' account, which means that yes, she did choose to stay, although she is uncertain about why. Although, on the bright side, she might be starting to figure out that she doesn't hate Rufus... Oh, and as for the whole being drunk thing, even at 21, I've never been drunk before, so I have no idea how accurate that would be...

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	18. Limit Level 2, Break 1

Though nothing had technically happened between them - at least he hoped that the lapses in his memory were strictly drunken blockages and not the removal of traumatic events - it still felt as if something significant had occurred that night, so it was harder than it ought to have been to face each other from that point on; bending over backwards to keep from direct eye contact and going through great lengths to avert as many interactions as possible, Rufus and Larette had managed to remain as separate as was allowed for almost two weeks. At least they had, until Tano had not only stopped by - The Vice President had noticed that this past week or so the security chief had become increasingly more busy - but had made _them_ dinner. He didn't care one way or another about the surprise meal, but the businessman did have his qualms about having to join the Turk for the group sitdown, since Tano would obviously make them eat at the table he had already prepared.

Seeing no other choice in the matter, the blonde figured that even if he did sit there, he had no reason to have to mind the woman any. That was a grievous error in judgment, as he found out when Tano brought out a little celebratory cake for the three of them to split once the duo had arrived and taken their seats around the sizable square table. Wishing that he hadn't turned off his computer for the night so that he excuse himself from this scene, a quick glance over at the Turk told him that she would rather be anywhere else at that moment as well. Not that he looked directly at her to see the way her sepia orbs had been downcast, or that she had put on a subtle frown to try to endure this for the sake of her old chum.

"A drink for the birthday girl?" Bustling about the eatery space, Tano was going all out to serve the other two, and a third place intended for himself. He had already pulled out a bottle full of something bubbling and golden and was half-way through pouring it when the Turk voiced her rushed opposition to the beverage. Clearly she had been thinking about the last time she had gotten drunk, but thankfully that was one incident that Tano had no idea about, so he probably figured that she would rather have something else. "Fine, fine. Then what would you like to drink?" Telling him that she just wanted some water, he hurried to fix a glass. "Weirdo. Sir, would you care for a drink?"

Hmm, while the drink was rather tempting, he too was weary of another incident like the last, so he too declined. "I'll have the same." Their eyes didn't meet, but he could tell that she had looked over at him at his order - in fact, it felt as if her eyes were on him rather a lot, considering that they were ignoring each other, although it have been a lie to say that she was the only one. Wait a moment, did Tano just say...? "'Birthday girl'?!" She hadn't mentioned anything about it, however, it wasn't like he would have acknowledged it even if he had known.

Busy with the cup that Tano had just passed her, she looked away uncomfortably. "...Yeah."

Tano nodded, filling in the blanks. "Larette's birthday was the last time that anyone back home had seen her, and even though they're years part, Caris was born the day after, so her folks would have a party on the same day for the both of them." She didn't make a sound, but the dark look upon her countenance read as if she disagreed with the notion that there had ever been any sort of a party, let alone that they had been enjoyable. Fair enough, it could have just been the reminder of such a sorrowful day and the loss of her little sister. "I remember that we used to spend hours away from the group every year since we could walk... In fact," The raven turned towards the Turk, "You're ninth birthday was the first time that we kissed."

Once more, he could feel her soft amber eyes darting over towards his direction, but what did it matter to him if and when she had kissed Tano? She was nothing to him, and anyways, he could have any girl he wanted, so why should he be jealous of the guy sitting opposite him for being the first to taste her lips? If he whimmed it, there could have been line of women better than Larette in every conceivable way just waiting outside his door, so again, why did have to be of any consequence that they had had something in the past? He didn't care in the slightest. Not one tiny bit. Good for them. Great.

"I'm curious about something," Actually, there were a few questions the suit had, such as why their reunion seemed so underwhelming and didn't go anywhere, but that wasn't where the blonde's question was leading. "Just how many..." He considered the best way to phrase the question to get the desired effect, "'friends' do you have? Back in Midgar, you seemed rather close to Reeve, despite the age difference." And as predicted, she took the bait beautifully - but why stop there? "You're not that attractive, and..." Her personality was comparable to a wet rag fixed to highly volatile dynamite, but he wasn't completely sure how to articulate that part in a way she could understand. Well, there really was't much need, since the fire had already been lit...

Snarling like a cornered animal in a cage that had found the reserves needed to turn on its captors, keepers, and tormentors, the Turk jumped up so quickly that the table had been upended - the lovely lilac cake slid a dark stain across the floor, pale wax candles snapping into pieces and rolling every-which way. In the back end of the room, Tano sobbed over the loss of the frosted confection, but neither of the other two paid him any heed, since this fight was between them. Lounging in the chair as he waited for retribution, Rufus leaned back casually, observing the damage done calmly, as if it had been another company report; the malfunctioning reactor, on the other hand, had noticed something about the cake that had set her off on a whole other side tangent. "What kind of a cake is this?! Tanokoi, you didn't get me a chocolate cake, did you?" He nodded meekly. "But chocolate is _your_ favorite kind, not mine. And don't say that was Caris' either, because her's was lemon-marbled red velvet. You know that I've always hated chocolate!"

Trying to keep his composure and not wilt underneath the billowing dragon, the dark-suited security tried to be brave in the face of certain death, but the silent scream in his eyes gave away that he was terrified of his childhood friend, more so than he had ever been of her before, which made sense given that she was now a member of the Turks. "Hey, I got you a cake, so who cares what flavor it is?" It looked as if he had been about to say more on that matter, but there was a chirping noise coming from his phone, which meant that there had been a lead. Lucky him. Lurching his shoulders once more, Tano quelled beneath the glare she was sweeping across the room at large. "Duty calls." Sprinting faster than his legs could carry him, it almost looked as if he had just teleported from the kitchen. Hmph, and that was the head of his security: petrified of such a pathetic excuse for a Turk.

Once Tano was out of sight and it was just the two of them alone in the apartment once more - a sensation that was beginning to feel a tad too commonplace for the blonde - the Turk rounded in on the chortling VP, "Oh, don't think I forgot about you!" Stomping her way through all the little people to hover just within arms reach, the woman glared at the young blonde. Once more weighing her options, she seemed to find an excuse she thought would pass as plausible, because the next thing Rufus knew, there was a hunk of chocolate hurtling straight at him.

And... There went the white waist coat he was wearing, and the matching pants, and part of his face, and surely more than a wisp of his meticulously styled hair; crumbling mid-air, the impromptu projectile had spread its range, spattering not just him but the back wall as well. Wiping the fresh remains of birthday cake from his flesh, Rufus compacted the sweet snack in his fist and turned it back at his aggressor, catching her in the middle of the chest; howling with outrage, she scooped as much of the same piece from the top of her shirt as she could and catapulted it straight back at the blonde, and on and on it went, even after that very first piece was too puny to use any further.

Taking the very last portion she could salvage, the Turk closed in on Rufus, smashing the squashy morsel straight into the side of his head, all palm as she ground the painted chocolate into his face and hair; not to be outdone - let alone by a woman, by _this_ woman - the former blonde pulled out his own final fragment and pulverized the lower part of her jawline and the entire side of her neck. Only when all the ammo had been expended did they stop to look back at each other, identical grins spreading across their faces as they took in the crazy scene at hand, both laughing like maniacs. "You... you look ridiculous!"

"Me? What about you?!" Tittering wildly, the Turk couldn't suppress her giggling fit as she lifted a small tiny piece of cake from the Vice President's shoulder. "You're covered!" Looking at the dot she had cleaned off, examining it for something, she decided to try the sliver, carefully putting it up to her lips so that it wouldn't blow away, taking her sweet time to suck off some of the accompanying frosting on her fingertip. "Hmm, not bad, but I still would have preferred strawberry."

Strawberry? Huh, the same as him. "You-" Just as he been about to say something that wasn't completely horrible, it occurred to him that she had just eaten a dessert off of his person, and what was more, she had made a bit of a production of it. Was it an innocent occurrence where she had acted unthinkingly and had figured that it would have been bad manners to not even try the cake, or was the display more devious in nature? Being her, it easily could have been a combination of the two. "You just ate that cake off of my shoulder."

Mentally slapping herself in the face, she blushed a bright crimson (he had no idea that someone could turn _that_ red _that_ fast). "Hehe, I..." She scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. "I just saw it there, and Tano went to such trouble for my sake, it would have been rude, and not to mention the fact that I kinda shouted at him when he didn't deserve it." Well, Rufus thought to himself, him deserving it was a matter of opinion. "And... No, never mind, that was all." Seeing by the look on his face that he was unsatisfied with that answer, she groaned and elaborated. "You..." Ok, now she just seemed like she was stalling for time to make up a reasonable excuse. "You'll probably take it the wrong way, but what's edible grooming between friends?"

Hmph. Friends? As if he'd ever sink so low as to consider her anything more than another employee in a company the size of Shinra, or at best a workplace acquaintance that he only knew because it was mandatory! And seriously, edible grooming? Was that really the best example she had to give? Pathetic. Judging from the expression on her face, the Turk seemed to think so too. "Oh, then you won't mind if I do this, will you, _friend_?" There was a cold irony in his tone as he reached over and removed his own speck from the Turk's neck, finger tracing down to her manubrium.

"Oh..." Her flush intensified as he followed her example, or maybe it was... "I think I should head for my room now, since it's getting so late. Or maybe you should go, and I can stay here and try to clean some of this off the walls so-" Moved by instinct, the blonde had no idea what made him do it, but while she was sputtering out lame excuses, he brushed more of the cake from her, only this time he had grazed lower along her sternum. Not objecting, her sepia eyes flickered from where he 'cleaned' to his eyes, and then back down to his index finger. Taking his hand in the both of hers, she directed it back towards her mouth, where she proceeded to nurse the digit between her moist lips, breath warm. "I said that you can't touch me there, but since I'm in such a generous mood, I'll let you off with a warning: Do it again, and I'll do something else to your finger; and I'm pretty sure that you won't like what I have in mind." Letting his hand go, the Turk imitated the breaking of bone. "Understand?"

* * *

Don't really know about the voice (I haven't played Crisis Core in way too long, and if he had any dialogue in Dirge, I can't remember), but creepy feels like an understatement with Hojo. I'm sure there are other villains who act in the name of science, but none come to mind right now. Yeah, I stumbled across something for that FF 0 or whatever, but like I mentioned before (at least I think I mentioned at some point during this), bad interactions with certain FF have left me none too eager to branch from vii. Honestly, not even sure how I managed to get into vii, since it started well before my discovery of AC. Anyways, I have no idea what Theatyrhem Final Fantasy is, but I like that they use Tifa's AC look since I really love it, even if I'm not overly found of Tifa herself. Coming from a family of smokers (well, my mom and I don't, but pretty much everyone else), I have no desire to pick up a cigarette ever, but I am curious to drink, but obviously I'm in no hurry for that. Yeah, Fizzy drinks are good (and tea). I'm really glad that you liked the chapters, and that the latest one answered some questions, which was my intent.

Is there such a cake as a lemon-marbled red velvet? Well, there is in Gaia. Come to think of it, do they even have cake? Hmm... To be clear, the line about Larette stomping past all the little people was a metaphor for her being a Godzilla-like monster. You know it's funny, writing this chapter, I had three different outcomes: one where Tano is being more of a jerk and Rufus ends up being the hero; one that ended in the cake fight and went pretty much nowhere after she calls him jealous; and finally this version that you see here! Really making that 'T' work, aren't I?

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	19. Ultima Plus Quadra

Larette was so worked up at Rufus that she couldn't even attempt to enjoy the scalding hot water that was cascading over her head, rinsing down the drain with literally half a bottle of shampoo and a majority of the chocolate cake (the frosting was more resilient to her scrubbing, but at least it would blend into her hair for the most part). Once the water finally came away clean, the Turk had every intention of turning to her third choice of relaxation - the first being impossible without a suitable partner, and the second out of the question due to space constraints - which was taking up her sketchpad (often shrunken with Mini for portability on the job) and drawing her frustrations away. There was one particular piece she was currently working on, but that was something she didn't want to risk messing up in her anger, so instead the Turk thought about subjects that would be more suitable for her mood, coming up with things that were blazing orange, searing scarlets, and abysmal blacks.

"Where is it?!" Fresh out of the bathroom and still so soaked that the translucent silver robe over her nightie was sticking to her shoulders, the Turk nearly upended her entire room in her frantic search for a book that was not there, her fists aching to add some mauves, pinks, browns, and grays to that list of color choices. As if it hadn't been enough to lay his hands all over her, now he had had the audacity to touch things she had stored beneath the bed for privacy and safe-keeping?! Grr, it was just like him to do something like this!

If it wasn't small stupid things like spending hours in the bathroom each and every morning - seriously, the woman's hair was at least four times as long as the blonde's, so was it truly necessary for him to take a million hours styling it?! - or picking fights about how his morning routine demonstrated a 'care for his appearance' while hers apparently illustrated a 'depressing lack of hope', it was stunts like these that exhibited all the little reasons that it never would have worked. As if she'd even humor Reeve and Tani's stupid ideas and toy with the possibility! Although, there had been a moment or two when she... No! The woman wouldn't allow herself to think of the one example she had had of Rufus being everything she thought he wasn't, because that one instance was just a fluke. That man was, put as simplistically as could be, nothing more than a terrible person; whatever good he might have done, said, or thought, it couldn't alter the fact that he was just the kind of person that she didn't want anything to do with.

Keeping that in mind, it was more than easy enough to stoke the fire building inside; maybe it was survivors guilt, or going stir-crazy from being locked indoors for more than two straight weeks without being able to see the outside in person, or perhaps it was just good old-fashioned anger, but whatever the cause behind it was, the overflowing emotions inside had to be let out somehow. Aware that she must have looked a sight rushing into his dwelling without so much as a courtesy knock, her drenched hair unbrushed and on end, the Turk could have cared less, so long as her things remain confidential and unseen by his judgmental eyes. "Sir, I'm missing some-"

Evidently the Vice President had just gotten out of his own private bath (the aforementioned problem of bathroom timing more of a comparison, since each room had its own, plus the bathroom bathroom) and was clearly not expecting any company, because he was stark naked when she barged in. Ignoring the ardent smoldering in her cheeks as her eyes darted this way and that, accidentally scouring the scenery in repeated attempts at looking away, she had completely lost track of what she was doing, or even what her cause was - at least she had, until he opened his mouth and brought her back to reality. "Get out!"

He said that, but she could see that a part of him didn't mind the attention, because he made no move whatsoever to hide himself; had it been her, she would have thrown whatever was at hand, clasping onto whatever was closest to block the sights - it wasn't that she had any qualms about her body shape and size, but there were reminders of the past that she didn't want to share with just anyone. "No, I came too far to falter now!" Looking around, she tossed him a nearby covering from a neatly folded pile. "Here, use this." With that settled, the Turk returned to what had brought her here in the first place. "Something's missing from my room, so I KNOW that you have it!"

Maintaining his calm demeanor like the cold-blooded buzzard he was, the blonde merely shrugged at the woman. "I have no idea what you're talking about." Naturally he would play dumb - that was a stretch or him, since the jerk pretty much did seem to know exactly what was happening everywhere on the planet - and then he would deny that he would knowingly take anything the woman had touched, followed by a list of reasons why. Well he could pretend to be in the dark all he wanted - that didn't change the fact that she KNEW he had it!

"#$%^, I don't want to hear it!" At the end of her rope, it felt as if everything was just bubbling over inside, merely waiting to spill over the edges at any moment. "I'm fed up with how you treat me!" Her mind flashed not only to their last encounter a few short hours ago but every day before that, a thousand and one things running through her mind at that moment. "You always talk down to me, you never call me by my proper name, you rarely acknowledge anything about me, and that's just the beginning of that list!" Livid beyond just seeing the color red, the young lady had no idea when she had started to close the space between them, but before she knew it, she had gotten right up in his face, just rearing to do something dangerous. Even rattling those things off, mind still not over how the cake fiasco had ended, what bothered her the absolute most at this juncture was that those eyes - so frigid, forbidding, and starved for company - were glaring, just daring her to do it.

Frost-bitten blue orbs boring deep, deep down into her core as he surveyed her aggressive stance, it couldn't have been any more palpable that he saw through her, reading at just a glance that she couldn't stop thinking about him, that she could hear his voice in her head at night, that she couldn't escape from his piercing blue eyes no matter how hard she tried. Just like in the beginning, he correctly interpreted what was in her mind, reading the thoughts that had been lurking below the surface the entire time... "Hmph, you know you won't do it."

Wouldn't she? Under normal circumstances, most certainly not, because as a Turk, she would have had more sense than to act in such a manner, especially towards someone of his standing, but tonight? Fueled by as much rage, confusion, and frustration as she was? Even as she reached out for the blonde, the woman knew that she was going to regret this and that the repercussions would echo, but at this moment, concepts such as tomorrow could wait, because she just couldn't hold it all back, not anymore...

Forgetting the reason she had even come into his room, the woman overstepped her boundaries as much as they could be overreached, taking a firm hold of the back of his head, fingers locking so he couldn't slip out of her grasp at the last possible second, intertwining in his roots. "This ends now, Mr. Vice President." Larette saw him brace himself for a serious blow to the face, eyes growing wide in shock as her other hand passed his cheek to rest on his bare shoulder - he had been expecting her to strike him. So maybe her soul wasn't quite as exposed as she feared. Good. "If only it were that simple..."

Seizing the moment like a chocobo farmer restrains a rampaging beast, the Turk did the dumbest thing she was ever going to do her life: she threw all caution to the wind and situated her lips against his, kissing him aggressively, passionately, angrily, venting every thought she had ever had about the businessman, from how much he irritated her to how magnetic aspects of him were. Though it would never be put into words, she expressed with her upper body how good he smelled as they skirted each other in the halls, how the timbre of his voice resonated, even as he cut her down with his snide remarks; she thought of all the times she wanted to smack him upside the head for being such an intolerable jerk, actually acting on that as she brought her knee up to his abdomen. It wasn't like she was going to beat him - she just wanted him to know exactly how much he got under her skin.

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I found a video of it up on Youtube so I could see what it sounded like for myself, and my opinion is that Hojo's voice was kind of fitting for him, and that really isn't a compliment. Weiss', on the other hand, sounded awesome, so why we had to be cheated out of that... Anyways, I liked Charming in Shrek! He was funny. Well, it's not really a spoiler, since I have beat the game before, but not remembering it, yeah, in a sense, it could be considered a spoil. That's an interesting concept, actually, but that's just not my kind of game. Yeah, I know the effects of smoking, since I see my family going through a lot of them. I have a hard time with green teas, but black teas I like. Orange juice... yeah, I'm not its biggest fan, but every now and again its ok. I could get into the drink thing more, but I feel that could go into a fairly large tangent, so instead I'll just express my gratitude! Seriously, I could go on...

Crap, I forgot to say this in the last chapter, but one reason that I said that Caris and Larette's birthdays were right on top of each other is to pay homage to the original, where they were twins. Personally, I think that twins are awesome, but I didn't really do anything with that, and for this story, I like it better with there being a couple years age difference. I don't know how this translated, but hopefully it wasn't way oof too many marks... And with this, I do believe I'm switching the rating, for my own sake. Maybe I won't cross that line, so it'll go back to a 'T', but until I know for sure how it's going to shake out, this story will be an 'M' from this point onwards.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	20. Challenge Accepted

Set in stone, tomorrow was the day that that crotchety mechanic would stop by with that dingy repair woman, as well as the same day that the delivery boy was expected to arrive from Midgar, so they should have been resting up for a busy day ahead, not spending half the night up washing food out of their hair - although he took vindication in knowing that the Turk would have had a harder time, due to the length of her impossible locks. Either way, no matter how little sleep that he got tonight, that didn't change the facts any that it was also time for the weekly food consignment to appear at some point, as well as all of the other rotating services that worked discreetly to maintain his existence in Junon.

That's what the Vice President should have been focusing on, but instead he had found himself accosted by his 'roommate' late into the night, who - halfway through berating him at the top of her lungs with things that simply didn't mean much in a company setting - had started to attack him with her tongue in the other meaning of the word. The way she had grabbed him by the back of the head, her hands lacing through his hair, his first instinct was that she was going to let lose and attempt to beat him, which wasn't entirely a wrong assessment...

Knee colliding sharply with his abdomen, there was no mistaking what kind of a call this was, nor was there denying what it was mutating itself into, the blonde unable to not think about how absorbingly delectable the Turk's lips had tasted on his, like honey and zeio nuts crushed up into a fine, sugary powder, all the poison limited to her words. If he had given it any thought - which of course he did not when there were far better things to think about - he would have thought that her lips would taste like some kind of fruit, since that was what most of her diet had consisted of, but if not that, his next guess would have been that they would have reminded him of something floral. But of course he had given it no thought.

Although, if he had pondered the reasons why she was so full of bitter venom any time he was concerned - he had seen how she interacted with the 'staff', and those had all been cordial encounters, even the time when the crate full of food had fallen on her foot - Rufus would have reached the conclusion that there were three possible defenses:

The first was by far the most likely, and also feasibly a factor in the second and third scenarios; in it's simplest words, Larette wanted him, but who could blame her for that? No one sane, but one could hold it against her for taking that whole 'I'm a strong, independent woman, so I'll do this my own way' approach. Didn't she know that one caught Chocobos easier with greens than with violence? Not to say that he was in any way interested in being caught by anyone, let alone the Turk.

Consideration number two was that she was simply striving to live up to the untouchable reputation of the Turks. It wasn't that they were expressly forbidden from taking part in the exhausting execution that was a relationship - it just would have made her job that much harder to balance. Besides, between needing every conceivable advantage to stay afloat, and her intended target - himself - being someone that would have been expressly forbidden had someone been foolish enough before her to land that implied idea in the rules, it was more than impossible - it was insane. If a Turk dated, they saw tramps and peddlers, not board members (except for Reeve, but he was different than the others). Clearly it had been before her time as one of them, but he had seen relationships tear apart Turks far better than she.

Argument three was that she was struggling to assert her freedom from what he could only assume was the influence of her father. Maybe that shadow wraith was enough to drive her away from any man in general, or perhaps there was something about Rufus in particular that had reminded her of father dearest, but which ever it was, she had chosen to sequester herself from that scene. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't that handy with Contain or Barrier, so the results had been disastrous to say the least.

Her own flaws and hang-ups aside, Rufus did acknowledge that he wasn't about to take this kind of treatment laying down (so to speak), so he retaliated. Dropping the cover she had so unceremoniously thrown him, the blonde returned the favor with gusto; taking lead, he deepened the lip-lock; grabbing the back of her neck and latching an unshakable hold of the most tapped point of her waist, he yanked her deep into his arms, pinning her tight as she fought to reclaim her position of power. "You underestimate me, Turk.''

Drawing upon reserves of power she had undoubtedly been holding back, she shoved him all the way back to the bed. "The feeling's mutual." But was it? While it was true that she had forced him all that way in a single movement, he still had his arms locked around her, so they had both tumbled on top of the bed, the woman on top this time. That wasn't going to last if he had anything to say about it. "Hmph, you might be able to hold me down, but do you have what it takes to keep up?" Grinning lecherously, she wasn't quite counting him out just yet, but she certainly wasn't complimenting him. "Strength isn't always equal to stamina, and I don't quit until I'm completely satisfied."

"Hmph," He smirked at the challenge, "Then you won't mind if I don't wait for you to finish." More than a spark, a burning inferno comparable to that of Hades' lair was lit, igniting a battle for more than mere dominance - her words had issued a declaration of war to see which of the two was truly superior... It was a contest he could't lose...

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So it IS true what they say - there is a fandom for every character... Well, I suppose that there are worse characters out there. But that's what makes Charming so amusing to me - he tries so hard to be the 'hero', but there are just so many reasons that he isn't. Unless I ask for them, I try to avid spoilers, but sometimes, if it's something I'm not interested in, I don't mind so much. Oh, wow. Bleh, I hate coffee, but other forms of caffeine I don't mind so much. Thanks for understanding! And as always **Guest**, thank you for the review!

And now things are going to get super cereal!

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	21. Blowing the Job Off

Savoring the opportunity at hand, the Turk used her leverage to her advantage and examined the blonde trapped between her legs, figuring out the best tactical approach to take; not having anything planed ahead of time - obviously, given that this was all happening in the minute - the woman ran her hands over the expanse of his shoulders, still not over how broad and powerful they were beneath his suit. Finding that kissing was too intimate for this occasion, she stopped herself halfway down his throat, turning the butterflies to leeches, his back becoming the perfect scratching post for a Behemoth as her nails raked his flesh. Luckily, her nails weren't particularly sharp, and even if they had been nicely manicured, it wouldn't have mattered much since the Vice President had become accustomed to practical talons clawing away, hellbent for blood, but that was another story...

Not just twiddling his... thumbs... Rufus made to remove the Turk's silvery silk robe so he could discard the tantalizing little number beneath it - partially so that he wasn't the only one completely exposed beneath a microscope, but mostly so he could see better what she was packing under the mandatory uniform - but she wasn't having that for whatever reason and roughly smacked his hand away. He only thought that she must have had an insecurity about her body and didn't want to be seen by anyone; in truth she just didn't want to be seen by someone that she didn't feel that close to, since the most private part of herself was a series of scars that ran from the middle of her shoulder blades to her left hipbone. The possibility struck his mind that if it wasn't just self-doubt, the Turk just might have liked to remain garbed, or that by leaving her things on, she was making some sort of statement that this was only to be a one-time only event, so nothing more should have been inferred. Depending on how this night turned out, a repeat might be in order, but regardless, the VP was positively certain that he would never form any sort of personal connection to her...

"Hmph, plans change." Well fine, she could keep her precious body private, since it meant so much to her to erect boundaries, but she couldn't have both that _and_ a place on top, so Rufus figured that it was time for him to make his move - rotating from the core, the blonde swung her through the air as if she weighed no more than a ghostly Dorky Face, taking one wrist in his hand as she was rotating in midair and the other once she had collided with the bed, her feminine form bouncing off the mattress. Unless he was mistaken, he owed her for the Malboro-like bite marks now tracing the side of his neck and sternum, and that was a debt he intended to pay back in full. With interest.

Keeping her hands over her head so she would be limited in her means of acting out, the Turk saw that the blonde reached over for the sheets, intending to tie her hands up so he would be free to explore the woman at his own discretion. Part of Larette was intrigued by the idea, but the angry part of her that was currently in control wasn't so keen on the notion of giving him that easy of a time, especially when she wanted to make him pay for every moment of suffering she felt while in his presence. "Yeah," she kicked the sheets off the bed and onto the freshly vacuumed carpet before he could touch them, "Not unless you do it too."

Hmm, again that was a captivating idea, but it sounded like it could lead dangerously close to something more romantic, which would completely defeat the purpose of tonight - well, one of the purposes. There really was no intention behind this - that would have implied that the Turk had planned on getting the Vice President into bed at some point - though there was no denying that it didn't work out to her advantage; now she could not only let loose after such a long time - seriously, it had been a while - and since her sketchbook was M.I.A. (Oh, yeah! That's why she had come in here in the first place!), this enabled her first choice of winding down, even if her partner wasn't a hundred percent suitable. If she had to say how suitable he was... Well, he had the right accessory for the job, so that gave him a hefty bonus, but because it was Rufus, that changed the final tally, making her unable to give it any kind of a number.

Fairly certain that she wasn't going anywhere - she wasn't, since her mind was basically only on the one thing right about now - the blonde repositioned himself so that he was no longer grinding his hips to hers, but was hovering above her chest. "Hmph, I think you know how this part works." Outwardly comprehending it, just before moving her mouth into position, the Turk fixed him with a beady glare that told him she was far from happy about this arrangement, the look getting more specific as her eyes narrowed. From what he could tell, it basically went on to say 'Just don't expect me to pretend like I enjoy it, because I'm not one of your little secretaries.'. Again, there she was jumping to conclusions about him! "Hmph, being a Turk, you of all people should know where all the sexual harassment claims are aimed."

As a matter of fact, she did, since one of her earliest missions for the company included tracking down a victim that was threatening to talk. "Maybe you're just better at hiding it than the President." While all power resided firmly with the President, Larette could easily see that Rufus was the more frightening of the two, as well as the vainer; frankly, the woman was shocked that he didn't make mention of their standing being so far below his own, or especially that their looks paled in want. "Either way, that's none of my business what you do with your... position."

"Speaking of position..." Bringing her back to the matter at hand and not off in the clouds of the workplace, the blonde gyrated his corporation to get her attention, "Someone isn't fulfilling hers."

Getting that he didn't mean that as a gender stereotype, at least she hoped that wasn't the case, the Turk glanced up at her hands. "You know, if you let go, I could really make it worth your while." She waited as he thought it over, at the same time lowering herself closer to the floor. "Let my hands go, and I can make tonight worth it..." She went the extra mile and added in a seductive purr, "If I get any naughty ideas, now's the perfect chance to punish me..."

Unleashing her wrists cautiously, weary of a coup, Rufus watched as she slithered back so that she was kneeling on her knees on the carpet and chin resting at the very edge of the bed, waiting for him to come to her. Hmph. Meeting her halfway just his once - it was fair, considering that she was the only one who would be making much use of her mouth tonight - the Vice President took his place at the edge, legs dangling over the side of the mattress. Surveying him for a moment, the Turk traced the natural curve of his inner thigh as she slid her hands up, guiding her torso so that she was exactly where she needed to be. This really was the part that she hated the most, but that didn't mean that the girl didn't know how to make good on her word and make her companion feel good.

On the cusp, both literally and figuratively, the Turk closed her eyes as she set to work, squinting when she had to so that she didn't mar her final score any. It was then that her phone chose to ring, just as he had laced his fingers through her violet strands, pulling the woman closer; being a Turk meant having your phone at all times, even off-duty, and that also implied answering it right away, no matter what. Extracting the cell from within her nightie, she suddenly jerked her head back so she could talk, but what she wasn't expecting was that he would prevent her from picking up and reporting in.

Tseng had kept tabs on this mission, just as he would for any job his team had been assigned, offering advice and issuing additional orders as needed; for this particular case, he had been checking in every other night or so, well aware that Larette and Rufus didn't exactly see eye to eye on anything. If she didn't answer, the director would probably assume the worst and act accordingly, so she knew that she should take her phone back from the blonde, but even if she did make it to answer in time, she would have had no clue about what to say. Rufus seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "You can talk to him later, once I decide your fate."

Decide her fate? Did that mean that she wasn't fired yet for her unprofessional behavior? No, it would seem much more his color to blackmail her for the position, or rather to remain in her current position. "I'm not doing this for my job - I'm doing it for..." About to say 'me', it occurred to her at last that she had wanted to do this to him the entire time, ever since their first encounter in the hallway. She was actually attracted to him...?! Wow, the woman berated herself, she really had a way of picking the good ones, didn't she? "...me."

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A round of applause for **nightskye01 **for the review!

Since basically all of the chapters deal with either Rufus or Laratte's POV, with the exception of chapter eight, I wanted to do one that was neither (or both, however you care to look at it), and what better time than now? That probably made it a huge mess... Well, if I get complaint, I suppose I could go back and consider fixing it... Maybe. That line about twiddling his thumbs was meant to be a joke, but apparently all my attempts at humor are a fail. Lewd, but not overly graphic. At least that was my intent - I wanted to keep it from going super hardcore, at least until I decide how intense I want this. Man, she's really slow to catch on, isn't she?

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	22. Contemplating Tenderness and Death

**A-Side**

Obviously there had been some level of attraction to the blonde, or else she never would have ended up in bed with him, but... Unable to wrap her head around the 'facts', their possible ramifications, and the mathematics of it all - damn him, before the Turk had started to spend all this time trapped with the Vice President, she never would have considered the logistics - Larette leaned back against the glossy headboard, eyes glancing past a row of sweaty hand prints that hadn't completely evaporated yet and a smear that was still felt by her forehead. Legs crossed at the ankle and knees drawn up tight to her chest, she contemplated the figure at her side; not quite asleep but far from awake, his blue eyes were visible only just through thin slits, unfocused as he waited for sleep to wash over him.

Considering that her life as she knew it was probably forfeit - the ride down into the flames of oblivion ultimately worth it - now seemed as a good a time as any to explain why she had stayed with him that first night, at least what she had understood of it. "This doesn't change anything, but that night... I could have left." He mumbled something, but she couldn't understand what it was, so she pressed on, "I don't get it myself, but when I looked at you - the real you, and not the mask you wear - I thought I saw something, and I just couldn't bear the thought of abandoning you when you looked so vulnerable. I know it was stupid, but..." She shook her head defiantly, "I don't know, I get so confused by this whole thing...You, and my feelings, whatever they are..."

It was all a mess! Her past, her family, her friends, her job, her love-life, her present... The only think that looked clear was her future, and from where she was sitting, that looked incredibly bleak, lasting only until Rufus had decided to end it. Hmm, apparently he really did have power over her... "I guess it won't be long before I see you again, Caris. I wonder if our parents will be there...?"

Stealing another glance over at the blonde, the woman wondered what it would have been like if she had known the first time that all of this was going to happen, if she would have been stronger then and wouldn't have given in to all his petty jabs, only giving him that much more of a reason to pull the trigger himself. Having come to terms with dying so long ago, a child in Gongaga without such blood-stained hands, it wasn't fear that she felt now - it was curiosity. Would it be quick, or would he be sadistic and draw it out? Would he even have the nerve to do it to her face, or would he wait for her to turn her back, maybe as she secretly hoped that his promise that she wouldn't die would be true? Would it even be him, or would they wait for someone else to come and do the deed? Her opinion probably wouldn't count for much, but if she had it her way, she would have wanted him to be the one to do it, quick and clean, right between the eyes, or maybe in the heart. Yes, the heart would have been more fitting, all things considered.

Death was something she could handle, since she had been around it even before becoming a Turk, but the heart - that was a lot trickier. Growing up, Tanokoi had been her only crush, and then because of her own actions, that had ended, but he wasn't the last; Larette had had a small crush on a fellow Turk, but it was obviously one-sided; not one sided, there was a small thing with a bartender in some dinky little town, but that was pretty much only when she was in that part of the world, which really wasn't a lot (in truth, it was a perfect excuse to not commit). Then there was her neighbor and that weird thing they had; more of a friendship than anything else, Reeve was the best person she knew - much like Zack - but even after spending hours thinking about it, if he had asked, she wouldn't have been able to offer him anything more. What made her heart so confused was not just the limited selection and that they were all closely tied to her vicinity (the mission where she had first met the bartender quite unexpectedly long), but also that she had been the one to close herself off (minus her workplace crush), and whatever it was that she felt for the Vice President, it was a feeling she had never had experienced before... Maybe that was why it had been so easy to brush it under a different label?

Deny it all she wanted to, there was no running from the fact that she was little more than a scared child, trying to find her place in the big, scary world, even in these last fleeting moments. There was no use renouncing anything anymore, not now that she knew that she was about to punch her number for the last time. "There's a certain kind of irony here, sleeping with the judge, jury, and executioner before really realizing that he was the one person that was controlling everything. You have so much power, even now: I just hope you can make the most of it."

Tomorrow really was going to be an eventful day, wasn't it? Figuring that between her impending doom and all of the appointments that he was going to have to keep, she might as well try to get some sleep, the Turk turned her sepia orbs upon the door. She knew that she should leave this time, but the idea of spending what could have been her last night alive terrified her more than almost anything else; even in the company of others, she often felt as if she was still so alone; not expecting that to change much even if she just fell asleep here, at least that way she could feel something warm by her side, hear the beat of another's heart. Hmm, she never did learn her lesson the first time, did she?

Rolling over on her side so she was watching the blonde as he slumbered peacefully, Larette snuggled closer to him, her lips lightly brushing against his forehead, "Sweet dreams, Rufus." Curling up in herself, it wasn't long before she too had drifted off into dreamland, hand unfurling itself like the wings of a newborn butterfly as she unknowingly placed her hand upon his cheek...

**B-side**

Exerting the last of his strength, he faded out on a wave of liquid euphoria, just barely managing to roll off of the Turk. Maybe it was just all the time he went without a partner speaking, but the woman hadn't been lying when she said it would be worth it; even the struggle alone had been enjoyable, rumbling and tumbling back and forth as they dueled to gain the upper-hand. In the end, it was impossible for him to say that there had been a victor, since they had both come away with what they wanted, and they had both sustained injuries; hers was more physical in nature, while his was...

Replaying the scene in his mind, he saw her straddling him, hips swaying in rhythm to his own while she threw her head back, exposing her pale neck as her vulgar moans rent the air; coming down to attack his torso once more, her hungry lips quivering in anticipation, she had misjudged the distance of her descent and had soundly conked her head right into the headboard. That had only fired her up that much more, or perhaps it had been him not asking if she was alright, instead demanding that she not stop. Either way, it had spurred the woman on and had only made her movements that much more furious, her body responding in even more fantastic ways as he met with her very core.

Just like her lips, he had been reminded of honey - she was sweet, and so moist and warm, but more than that, she was encased in such a thick shell, her natural barriers by far more cumbersome than the bees that protected an ordinary hive. For just a fraction of a second, he had locked eyes with the Turk, and he had seen the girl inside, so battered and frightened, her eyes an endless window into a dark world of ghosts and fears; she was so shattered inside, it had been like looking at a mirror.

"This doesn't change anything," Huddled up against the headboard, lost in deep thought, the Turk spoke up for the first time since saying - or technically screaming right in his ear - that she was hitting the final high of the night, "but that night..." There was no other night he could think of that they had crossed paths, expect for that very first, when they had gotten so spectacularly hammered together. Unless she meant the occasion before she had moved in, back in Midgar, but that was highly unlikely. "...I could have left."

Half feigning sleep so he could study her, his eyes shifted from gazing at her entire person to focusing solely on her face; for once, he was grateful for the survival training he had been forced to undergo, although he had always had a talent for pretending to be sleep. "I know."

Fooled by his act, either not understanding what he had said or choosing to ignore it - the second unlikely for her - she continued with her exposition. "I don't get it myself, but when I looked at you - the real you, and not the mask you wear-" She spoke as if she had already seen the farthest reaches of his own being, recognizing a kindred spirit. "I thought I saw something, and I just couldn't bear the thought of abandoning you when you looked so vulnerable. I know it was stupid, but..." Rufus could tell that it baffled her even now, but she didn't regret it. "I don't know, I get so confused by this whole thing...You, and my feelings, whatever they are..."

Larette had feelings for him? But hadn't so much of this night hinged upon her silently establishing the opposite? The entire time, the blonde had been under the assumption that this was just a hitch of insanity, that whatever had driven her to this point exactly, she was just lashing out at being so tightly confined, using whatever was behind it as a basis for justifying her direct retribution? Naturally he knew that her primary aim here was to show him just crazy he had made her, but to think that there had been something deeper than that at work... Was it really possible though?

Pondering the consequences, he dimly noticed her talking to herself, only barely catching the words as his mind raced this way and that. "I guess it won't be long before I see you again, Caris." Caris? Vaguely recalling that to be the name of her younger sister, he questioned why the Turk would bring her up now, unless... "I wonder if our parents will be there...?"

Stupid woman: she thought that her contract was going to be terminated, her life forfeit. Foolish woman. He wasn't going to tell anyone about this; so as long as it remained yet another company secret, there was no need for her to fear that fate. Of course, if anyone else found out about it, things were liable to get messy, and he could make no guarantees that she would make it to the end of the story...

Under the mistaken impression that she was going to meet her maker, the Turk kept speaking, "There's a certain kind of irony here, sleeping with the judge, jury, and executioner before really realizing that he was the one person that was controlling everything." There was no fear in her voice - a kind of grudging respect and resignation, but no terror - her eyes set as she envisioned the grim possibilities. Being a Turk, she had undoubtedly seen and done many things that fueled that twisted imagination of hers. "You have so much power, even now: I just hope you can make the most of it."

After all of that, that was her wish? She just wanted him to make the most of his position? No one had ever said anything remotely close to that to him, not even his own parents. Convinced he was going to be the one responsible for ending her very life, this was all she had to say?! What kind of answer was that?! To further perplex and irritate the blonde, the Turk snuggled closer to him, her lips lightly brushing against his forehead, "Sweet dreams, Rufus."

Sweet...!? About to explode, his voice caught in his throat, breath hitching as he saw how serene she looked, drifting off so instantly that her face was lingering right in his, breath temperate on his cheek, lips slack as she flickered out like a dead light charged by an out-dated energy source. Contemplating the frustrating creature that could annoy one minute and captivate the next, the Vice President gingerly brushed aside a strand of violet that had swept into her face, not really minding so much the hand that had unfurled against the side of his face.

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Thank you once more for the review **nightskye01**! And **Guest**, thank you too! The truth I was talking about was something I saw in passing on the internet that said something about there being a fandom for every character. Rumple for me was just kind of 'meh', but I found the others incredibly funny! I know that story all too well. Nope, just coffee for me, and certain flavors of tea that I don't like. Well I'm glad that the this is going over well with so many people!

Seriously, if I had just done Larette's POV here, the chapter would have been underwhelmingly short, so I decided to combine the both of them. Also, I want to apologize ahead of time for any typos - if you find any, please let me know and I'll take a look!

[**Edit: 6/26/14 - **Fixed a homonym or two. Thank you **nightskye01** for pointing that error out!]

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	23. Stung

Light was filtering in passed the wide window, flickering through the milky chiffon curtains, dancing in patches across her hair, illuminating the strands to a golden lavender color, playing with her skin tone as it flitted across her blinking eyes; catching in the light, her sepia orbs were flecked with additional hues of honey and amber. Still laying in the exact place he had left her the night before, the Turk gazed at him with extra bright eyes, frowning as last night came back in all its dysfunctional glory; had it not been obvious that she had come to the inaccurate conclusion that her life was hanging in the balance, it might have crossed the Vice President's mind that she was panicking about something that had to do with the lack of undergarments. In his own opinion, there were other things that she ought to have been perturbed by, such as the incessant ringing of the cellphone on the nightstand; after all, it was her boss calling for her.

Shooting over the blonde's shoulder, her brown eyes locked with the sleek metal object, but it was clear by the beyond horrified look on her face that she had no idea what to say to Tseng - dying was something the woman had come to terms with, as evidenced by her peculiar behavior post-coitus, but it would seem as if she was having a hard time figuring out how to break the news of her indiscretion to her superior. If he had to guess what she was thinking, Rufus would have thought she was worried over her job, and that it was expressly in the rules - undocumented of course - that there was only one way out of the Turks: Death. There was a plethora of reasonable justification for anyone to end her occupation as a Turk - anger issues, emotional instability, poor work ethic, the inability to better manage her time, and sexual harassment to name a few - but he wasn't going to do that to her. Even with all of these lousy credentials stacking against her, he found the woman interesting, from her attempts to put off the inevitable fights between the two of them to the way she didn't fear her own demise. And there were other things as well...

On its last few rings before going straight to the neatly tailored mailbox, the woman cautiously moved to reach around the one physical obstacle in her path, weary of bumping into him and initiating skin contact, her eyes unable to meet his; they had avoided eye contact before, but it had been nothing like it was now. Was she truly so scared of him and the power he had to decide her fate? Grabbing the phone before it was too late and just before her hand could wrap around it, his greeting was harsh. "Hmph, Tseng."

"Sir?!" Normally so calm and collected, it had clearly come as a shock to the man to be directly addressing the Vice President. If he had any assumptions as to why Rufus would be answering Larette's phone, the Turk in charge hid them very well. "What are you doing on this line? Where's Larette? Why isn't she answering her phone?"

Bordering on the snappy side of annoyed since Tseng's repetitive calls had woken him earlier than he would have liked, Rufus didn't care too much for being interrogated first thing in the morning, and the way she was watching expectantly, he was seriously reconsidering every thought he had last night. Here he was, going out of his way to protect her sorry hide, and she couldn't even have the decency to look him in the eye. "Hmph, I wasn't aware that I had to answer to the likes of you, Tseng." He paused for an argument that they all knew was never going to happen. "The Turk was taking the night off, on my orders." He could practically hear the dark-haired man tense on the other side of the line. "You can relax - she didn't leave the premise."

The director's voice was feeble, but very clearly relieved at the same time. Tseng was the kind of man that had nothing but faith in his comrades, but at the same time, not hearing back from Larette for several hours when she was supposed to to be stationed at a single location... Well, the Vice President could imagine what was running through the other man's mind. "O-oh. When she never answered the phone, we got a little nervous..." It showed that Tseng was still getting a feel for being the one in command of the entire department. "Regardless, it looks as if they took the bait; Reno has reported that the delivery boy has been tailed since leaving Midgar. His E.T.A. is around noon."

So it would seem that the woman's plan wasn't as idiotic as he thought; hiring some kid for 'urgent business' and hoping that the assassins would catch wind of it and move accordingly seemed like a long-shot, but apparently they were just that stupid; either way, it didn't alter the fact that this scheme was a waste of money. "She'll get the message." Hanging up the phone and returning it to his nightstand, the blonde cocked his head at the Turk, "I assume you heard that?"

Heard it, yes - believed it, not so much. Whatever he had thought had happened last night, clearly it had just been on the surface, since she still viewed him the exact same as the day that they had first met; ordinarily that wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest, but there was something about this Turk - this woman - that made him care. While her mind was failing to keep up with what was happening, or rather what had just happened, the blonde was growing more and more upset, unsure as to what exactly he felt more of - offended or wounded; although in his case, it would have been more appropriate to say that this stung him, since he was too thick-skinned to let something like this affect him.

Frazzled to say the least, the Turk couldn't decide where to even start the guaranteed tirade she had been storing for just this occasion. "What?! Why?! Aren't you...?" The woman had been so unsettled by his actions that she had completely forgotten to avert her gaze from his blue eyes, returning the intense stare he was fixing her with. "I thought..." Narrowing her gaze, the woman searched him for clues as to what angle he was working at, but she came up empty-handed. "You have a price for this: whatever it is, you should have waited for me to agree before answering the phone."

Had she been so thoroughly had that it was really so hard for her to believe that he didn't want anything from her for this service? Again, after last night he might have thought that she would come around to the notion that he wasn't as bad as she kept assuming, but it would seem as if that was asking too much of the female. "What do you possess that I could possibly want?" Of course there was one thing he wouldn't have minded getting out of this, but it wasn't anything he would force out of her.

It might have occurred to her that he could have just taken whatever it was with her death, if there had actually been something he demanded. "I don't know what you would want from me, but I refuse to believe that you're doing me any favors." And there was that charming personality he was so fond of, coming out in full force. "Unless... You want something from me that you can't take... An apology, perhaps? Hmph, I stand by what I did, and if you're expecting a 'thank you' for how you handled Tseng, don't hold your breath, because I never asked you to stick your neck out for me."

#%^&, this woman! Could she be any more ungrateful?! "Remind me to congratulate Tano the next time I see him." Seeing the question in her eyes, Rufus didn't wait for Larette to open her mouth and ask, since that would mean having to hear her voice, thus increasing the risk that it would be his turn to lose it with this Rilfsak. "For surviving a creature like you, and having the good sense to steer clear all this time-"

It was the slap heard across Gaia, or at least it should have been, had he not anticipated the move and caught her by the wrist before the impact. "Let me go!" This woman... was she really so brazen as to think that she could get away with treating him like this? That she could say whatever she wanted, do whatever she was going to do, and he wasn't going to strike back? Oh, no. Rufus Shinra was the plaything of no one. "What are you going to do to me?!"

Good, she was frightened - that all-too-familiar tattletale gleam in her eyes - just as she should be, just like everyone else was of him, as if he were some kind of a monster... Maybe he was some sort of monster, the way that very little got to him, that he could keep such a cold exterior, that it took so much to get him to feel anything at all; whether or not he was yet another abomination the President had had a hand in creating, the blonde knew that it was his place to play that part now, to scare her into her rightful position as his employee. Intentional or not, Larette had taken his kindness for granted one too many times now; he had been extraordinarily generous towards this Turk, allowing so much to slide, but no more. She undoubtedly would have asked what he had done that was so 'generous', and his answer would have simply been to remind her that she had continued to exist thanks to his intervention, but this way was better...

"In the business world," Ripping by the wrist still in his grasp, he pulled her in close, knocking the woman off balance so that she was supported only by his chest, "it is true that there are always benefits to be reaped; even in the world itself, both symbiotic and parasitic relationships exist." Rufus unblinkingly held her gaze, asking in no uncertain terms which it was going to be. "This doesn't have to become a completely unbearable situation for us, unless you keep acting like a spoiled child."

Deducing that she was being scolded like some adolescent brat, the Turk's apprehension at her position was quickly turned to annoyance. "I won't be bullied by you. You want to fire me, fine, go right ahead, but I'm not going to stop being myself, even if that means we keep ending up here. I told you from the very beginning that it's my job to protect you, and I will see it through to the very end." Yanking her arm back, massaging the shoulder, Larette frowned. "I'm not just your doll - I'm my own person. I suppose I do owe you one, but nothing has changed between us."

No, he supposed that it hadn't. "So what you said last night means absolutely nothing?' On one hand, the Vice President did respect that she refused to cower before him, but on the other, her refusal to submit had left the blonde feeling rather powerless; knowing that he couldn't control her like everyone else in his life was both a frightening concept and exhilarating, since he had never before encountered a soul even half as resolved, that he could come to consider as his equal, with time. "You said that you had feelings for me that you didn't understand, and you wanted me to make the most of my position." Once more, he answered the look on her face. "You assume too much."

* * *

It would seem that I've been making assumptions, and that is rarely ever a good thing - so please, allow me to rectify the confusion I have created. Watching (at least most of at this point) 'Before Crisis', it seems to me as if Turks can only end their run in one way, which is death. Larette, having lashed out at Rufus in such an extreme manner, assumes that she's going to get fired, or in her case, killed. Hopefully that answers that one, and as for what a typo is, it's basically an error/mistake. **nightskye01**, **Guest**, thank you so much for pointing this stuff out to me! Everyone, just let me say now that I can be a major numbskull at times, and I have a terrible memory, and apparently I'm taking things for granted again, so I'm sorry, and I hope that you'll keep bearing with me and reading! And **Guest**, to finish replying to the rest of your message, I am so not technically savvy, so no worries! Actually, it's kinda funny, because we seem so alike, and yet so different. Anyways, thanks again, and I'm glad that someone's enjoying this fic!

Rilfsak = most annoying monster in the game. So basically, Rufus is comparing her to one of the most bothersome and untouchable monsters in the world. Maybe I could have picked better, but I just finished with the Ancient Forest, so they're fresh in my mind. So strong-willed and resilient, but they both are opening up to the idea of the other, so that's something. Best to come to terms with one's self first, you know?

[**Edit: 6/28/14** - Another thanks to **nightskye01** for pointing out my grammatical errors!]

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


	24. Inside The Night

Ignoring the pulse pounding in her ears, the blood running rampant as it scrambled all about inside, all Larette could think about was the seething furry wrestling with the unsettling confusion in her heart, the poison of fear lost somewhere in the midst of it all. All her life, she had never before felt a fraction of what the Vice President was bringing out of her now, and that only intensified as he sat across from her, so far and yet so close, blue eyes awash with a fresh wave of disgust for her undoubtedly - not that she could particularly blame him in this instance. Spitting back in the face of his generosity was cruel, especially since the Turk assumed that it was the first he had shown any one person, but he didn't understand what was going on in her head; even she was at a loss to make sense of it all.

On one hand, the Turk was angry; she had thought that he had taken something of hers; he had touched her in such a way that the sensation lingered; and now he had brought the emotion back full circle, stepping in to either 'save' her for his own amusements, to play the hero and stroke his ego while she melted, or it was all to prove that he was absolute, that everything ended and began with him. But it wasn't just rage coursing through this whole ordeal - the woman was still confused by the realization that she could possibly find someone like Rufus appealing, especially at this juncture. The list of complaints and reasons why it was never - nor ever should - going to happen between them was never ending; even if one had been granted the ability to live a thousand lives with just the purpose of reading that sheet, it still would not be suitable enough to discern the entire contents of her disapproval. So dead-set against the idea that they could even do so much as share a single breathing space, it was almost impossible to wrap her mind around the fact that her upset had overshadowed everything else and had allowed anything to happen at all.

Afraid - yes, even with her brave countenance, the woman was petrified of the man opposite her - the Turk found many reasons to cower before the blonde, but even with them, there was so much more anger to to be had. What could he possibly understand?! Jumping into a more erect sitting position, the woman glared over at the blonde, tabling his last comment. "You could never know what it feels like to so completely give yourself over to death, waiting with your arms spread wide as he taunts you with his lips, just waiting until you can't take it anymore..." Holding herself at the memory of how she felt when she thought she had lost Caris, Larette explained how she felt about last night's encounter. "I met him twice now, expecting both times to go, to be taken, and both times, I have been rejected... Last night, I was ready to meet him almost as a friend, to smile as he led me to the place I might see my sweet sister once more, and you... You expect me to be grateful? To repay you? To see you as some sort of hero? Don't think it's so simple..."

Shaking her head, the walls cracking as some part of her broke down inside, Larette was finding it increasingly hard to see anything as black and white anymore, everything running backward and forward into a blur that she couldn't even attempt to fathom. "You want to know how I feel about you? I can't stand you - were it not my mission to keep you breathing - I might very well be glad to see you maimed and humiliated and..." But even as she said that, a horrifying thing occurred to her then - she could could no longer imagine the Kalm wolves feasting on his remains - in fact, the thought of seeing him torn apart by four chocobos running in different directions was rather sickening and brought a small flicker of something in her heart. No, the woman beat it back, unwilling to allow room for these strange new feelings to grow. "...I can think of too many fates too dark and twisted for your pretty little ears."

Too late to cover herself this time; Rufus certainly saw through her masquerade at long last, his mouth twitching into a grim sort of smile, as if she had just confirmed something to him. If he cared to use it, it could be the ultimate weapon of her own person destruction. "You're lying: You don't want to see me hurt. Everything you said last night, that was the truth, and all of this is just the armor of a scared little girl."

"..." Wanting nothing more than to deny it, a lump had formed in the back of her throat, preventing any sounds from escaping. Unable to so much as whimper in protest, she hung her head in defeat, hair tumbling all around in a violet veil. It really was true... How could she have been so blind? Finding it far easier to pretend that there had been nothing good about him, no small part of the woman desired to go back to that time. As a child, it had been easy enough to tell that she had liked Tani, and going after him was almost like second nature, but now that she was older, 'wiser', and dealing with far more complicated situations and consequences, it was almost impossible to figure out. Asking herself what was making it so hard, she wondered if it was simply their positions clouding matters, or if her own past and insecurities were the only things standing in the way; possibly it was just the depth of whatever this was, overwhelming in her underwhelming experience.

Why did it have to be so hard to know what she was feeling? Why did it have to be even more impossible to admit it? Now armed with the knowledge that she had found Rufus quite taking from the get-go, there had to be more that the Turk was missing from the picture, but what was it? Reeve had asked her if she felt any strong emotion for the Vice President, to which she had readily replied that she was revolted by the very idea, but that wasn't true; disdain could be a very strong sway, and Reeve never said that it had to be a good emotion. Tano had teased her at every available chance for finding them in an innocent but compromising-looking position, but even in a moment of seriousness, he had told her in earnest that he had never seen her look at anyone the way that she looked at the Vice President.

Coming from her first, that alone held so much meaning, but she didn't - no, she couldn't - comprehend why they had insisted that there was something there. While she couldn't vouch for Tano on this one, she would put her life on Reeve being anything but a fool, so dubbing them morons might have been a bit harsh, since they had seen something she was trying so hard to pretend didn't exist. There was an attraction - and as last night proved a mutual one at that - and it was more than skin-deep. Naturally the words would never come out of her mouth, and even in her mind she made strides to maintain the illusion, but after arriving in Junon, it quickly became apparent that he was actually good at his job, having put out three separate fires within forty-five minutes. He might have been done quicker too, had it not been for a small snafu with the food delivery. And there were little things too, like the way he was with Dark Nation; the dog had arrived later on a separate flight, having gone to the vet and groomers, but once he arrived, they had been nigh inseparable; once she had even sat in the office and watched the beast leave its head contentedly on his owner's knee for the entire day. Speaking of, one of them should probably let him out of the bathroom soon so he could go eat his breakfast in the kitchen...

Maybe there was something there, something real that her make-believe could no longer hide and her tongue no longer deny, and just maybe that did scare her, but was it really so wrong to be terrified of liking him, of liking anyone so much that she could possibly forget her past, even try to forgive it, if she could find it in herself? If there was something, and she were to give in to whatever it was, there was more than just herself at stake - like it or not, he was above her station in every conceivable way, and if there was something more than this back and forth they had now, some one could work to exploit it, and... Wait a minute, could that possibly be the cause behind the hostility in his eyes? He could never love anyone - if such a level of fondness was even achievable - lest they be used as a weakness, so he would raise the barriers to such a degree that no one could hope to get close... That would explain so much in such a baffling world, the poor man.

Understanding better than most how it felt to shut the world out, she had spent this entire time warring with herself, trying so hard to force Rufus away with all her strength, because there was something in his eyes that only she could see - something that was reflected back at her... "I don't have to answer to your taunts and games. Last night was just stupidity and anger, coupled with the loneliness of losing my sister." It was all three, but something in the pit of her stomach told her that her sister had very little to do with it. "I don't trust my own head right now, so you should trust my tongue even less." Pondering upon what was real any more, it didn't help any that he was staring so intently at her, demanding answers that she just didn't have. "But what about you? You're sitting here, analyzing me, but you haven't turned that judgmental pendulum the other way yet, have you?"

Silent as he peered across the jumble of sheets at her, Larette could see that he was seriously looking inward to examine that himself. Fine, that allowed her time to do the same. Last night... Last night was... No, she didn't want to think about laying in bed last night at his side, showing her most vulnerable side to a man she thought was unconscious, unable to hear her words or perceive their meaning, since she didn't fully understand them herself. Somehow, last night was more even more impossible to acknowledge than everything else running through her mind at that moment, and this time, she didn't have to question it; it had been intimate. Not intimate in a romantic sort of way, since last night had been unthinking, and wild and crazy, and it was something that should never happen again, no matter how incredible it felt or how right (at the time), but because she had been able to get in touch with herself. That was rare for her to have such an open rapport, hence the panic of learning that it hadn't been as private as she had thought.

Backtracking to the second biggest issue of the night, it did feel right, but why? Even with Tani, there was something in the back of her mind, nagging to know if it was what she wanted or her father - Heaven only knows how much he would have adored getting the son he had always wanted for his own. Everyone she had ever been with, there was something, but last night with Rufus... It was pure as anything could be under those circumstances, and it had been what she wanted, no pressure from any outside force. Getting to know that side of each other was purely a physical thing, however, there was one moment that had been more than just wild lust, one fleeting second that had lasted so much longer as their eyes met, her soul shining on display. But it wasn't a moment of surrender, because he was there too, not above her by any means, but gleaming there, an equal. That icy blue prison was open once more, and she could see the man that had called out in the night, asking her to stay; he was just as fragile and broken as she had thought, the frail heart even more damaged in the palm of his hand. In that one brief moment, they understood each other, and she could see everything so clearly, even her own soul. What was her soul saying though?

* * *

My reviewers and readers alike, where would I be without you? As always, I want to thank **Guest**, **nightskye01**, and **frankannestein** for the support! Yeah, I know that when I was younger, I thought that that it was only similarities that made couples work, but as I got older, I realized that differences are just as important if not more so. I know I get on very well with my person of interest, differences and all. I know that we all end up doing stupid things - heaven only knows - but you seem like a real good person too. :) No need to apologize! People like their privacy, and plus saying it here puts it all out for any readers to see, so I totally get it. As for Rufus and Larette... Well, everyone'll just have to wait and see what I have in store for them. I want it ported over, but I'm fine with how it looks now.

Sorry this chapter took longer to come out in comparison to some of my others - I was admittedly quite stuck with how to make it work. I have later in the day already sketched out in my mind, but the stuff leading up to it... not so much. Anyways, if I leave you with one thought for this, I'd like to point out that liking someone is different than having a relationship with them; in other words, Larette is struggling to admit that she likes Rufus, simply thinking of worst-case scenarios of where those feelings could lead - she very much still frowns upon monogamy.

Please review.

I do not own FFvii or any of its characters. I do own Larette, Carriyon, Tano, Cheval, and Caris.


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